Black script lettering reading 'You are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you' across the upper chest near the collarbone.

Script quote across the upper chest

Lettering · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a two-line quotation in black cursive script tattooed across the upper chest, running from near the collarbone towards the shoulder. The linework is smooth and even, with the letters shaded in solid black ink. The skin tone is warm and the background is plain and pale, with a grey and red knitted top at the bottom of the frame.

Lettering Chest Quote Script Text Chain Collarbone

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ned,

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Your mother rang on Sunday to say you've signed the papers for the yard at Hartlepool, and she cried down the line the way she does about everything, so I told her to put the kettle on and stop. I'm not writing to argue with you. I found the old brass shears in the drawer under the dresser this morning, the ones your grandfather used for cutting harness leather, and I've wrapped them in a sheet of the Gazette so they don't rattle in the post.

Do you remember the summer you were eleven, when you took the scissors to the net curtains in the front room because you said the light was keeping you awake? Your grandfather laughed until he had to sit on the stairs. Afterwards he pinned a page from the calendar above the sink, and it's still there, curling at the corners: You are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you. He said a bit of cloth only holds as long as you let it, and the knot is always the easiest part to undo if you have the nerve to look for the loose end.

So I'm asking you to look for it. Not to run from the yard or the men or the wage, just to check each morning that you still chose the job and didn't inherit it along with the boots. Keep the shears in your kitbag. Most of the knots we're tied up in were sewn on by someone who meant well.

Write back when you can. Tell me the wind up there is as bad as they say.

Love, Aunt Maud