Black fine line script reading alis volat propriis between two shaded wings, tattooed on the upper arm.

Script phrase with wings on upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black ink tattoo of the Latin phrase alis volat propriis in flowing cursive script, with a shaded wing extending from each end of the lettering. The linework is fine and even, and the wings use light shading and grey tones. The tattoo fills the centre of the frame against plain skin, with a black top and a light blue garment at the edges.

Fine line Lettering Upper arm Wing Script Lettering Latin phrase Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite, the 6.40 to Carlisle has been cancelled again, so I am writing this on the back of the timetable while a porter sweeps round my boots. Dad would have had a word with the man in the ticket office. I did not. I bought a sandwich instead and watched a pigeon decide whether the platform was worth the trouble.

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You asked me on the phone why I am really going north. The honest answer is the job at the print works in Hexham, which I have wanted since the summer. Mum says it is too far. Mum said the same about Leeds. Alis volat propriis, Grandmother used to say when we climbed the orchard wall, and I thought it was a motto for birds. The words are scratched under the lid of her sewing box. She meant that you grow your own wings, not that someone hands them to you.

The train has come in now, slow and grey, doors already open. A woman in a yellow cagoule is hauling a suitcase with a broken wheel up the steps, and I have offered to carry it, which she refused with great dignity. I like her already.

I am going to get on before the guard changes his mind. Keep the spare key to the flat and feed the fish, but not too much, which was Grandmother's rule. I will write from Hexham once I have a room with a window that opens. Your loving sister, Hannah. P.S. I have kept the timetable. It says Hexham at 14.12, and I am choosing to believe it.