Black and grey photograph of a fine line script tattoo reading Breathe Deep and Dive along the collarbone and upper shoulder.

Script quote on a collarbone

Lettering · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of an upper chest and shoulder with the words Breathe Deep and Dive written in thin, cursive script along the collarbone. The linework is fine and even, with no shading, and the lettering slopes gently upward toward the shoulder. The background is softly out of focus and dark, which keeps attention on the tattoo.

Lettering Fine line Shoulder Word Quote Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ned,

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Your father's chalkboard is still hanging in the boathouse, the one he used to teach the harbour children their knots and tide tables. Across the top, in his blocky capitals, it still says BREATHE DEEP AND DIVE, the rule he gave every child who ever wanted to go off the slipway. I haven't had the heart to wipe it. Don't laugh at me for that, love.

You were nine the summer you finally jumped. You stood on the green weed of the slip for most of an afternoon, arms wrapped round yourself, while he sat on an upturned crab pot and counted slowly under his breath. When you came up spluttering and furious and alive, he didn't cheer. He just said, Again, and you laughed so hard you swallowed half the harbour.

I went down to the boathouse this morning with a tin of cold tea and a stub of chalk, meaning to rub the board clean. Instead I stood there a long while, and then I wrote underneath his words, in my own wobbly hand: AND COME UP AGAIN. Then I put the chalk in my pocket and walked out onto the slip. The tide was making and the water was the colour of pewter. I took one breath, the deep kind he meant, and I didn't wait to be counted.

Write and tell me how the training dive went. I'll want every cold detail.

All my love, Mum