Black fine line script tattoo reading A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, with small birds beside it, on the side of a ribcage.

Script quote and birds on ribs

Lettering · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black script quote reads A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, set across the side of the ribcage with a small cluster of birds in flight beside the final words. The linework is thin and even, with the ink in solid black and no shading. The photograph is a close, slightly angled view of the torso against an indoor background, with a dark top pulled up at the edge of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nan, the Thames has been like a millpond all week, which Dad says is a curse, not a blessing, because a flat river means no wind for the sail and we're poling the barge up past Brentford like it's 1912. He hasn't said a word about the stripe on the rudder since Tuesday, when he caught me on the towpath with the pot of paint I'd nicked from the lock-keeper's shed. I told him it was for the cabin roof. It was for the rudder, and it was my idea, and he's going to find out.

Keep reading

You'll want to know I'm eating properly. Mrs Okafor at the moorings gave me two loaves and a tin of pears, and I've been reading the old almanac you sent in the parcel, the one with the tide tables gone soft at the corners. I worked out the neap on my own on Sunday and Dad pretended not to be impressed. He pinned my sum on the galley wall under the clock. That's the nearest thing to praise I've had all summer.

The birds came down off the wharf at dusk yesterday, a little bunch of them, swallows or martins, I can never tell apart the quick ones. They went straight over the bow and kept going towards the sea. Dad stood up on the roof and watched them till they were specks, then said, very quiet, that a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, and went below before I could ask whether he meant me or himself.

So I'm out on the night shift tomorrow. Don't tell him I asked. Love, Wren.

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