Colour tattoo of a sewing needle with blue thread forming the words Sew Crafty above a pink four-hole button, on skin.

Sew Crafty script with needle and button

Mixed · Photo

The design shows a silver sewing needle at the top with blue thread looping down to form the script words Sew Crafty. A pink button with four dark holes sits below the lettering, with more black-outlined thread curling around its base. The linework is bold and clean, with flat colour fills in blue and pink against the skin.

Thread Button Script Lettering

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Pilar, the hull patch on Corridor Nine tore loose again last night, so I have been at it since four with the grey thread from the ration crate. You will want to know the seam held. It held because I stitched it twice and swore the whole time, the way your mother used to when she sat on the floor of the dock stores counting buttons for me.

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The pink button was in the tin with the others. It came off the blue coat Oskar left behind when the Halvard docked, back when the dye vats still ran in Hydroponics. Nobody on this ring makes pink anymore, so I have kept it thirty years, chipped edge and all. Last week the boy from Deck Four came asking for a button for his only shirt, the one he wears to his sister's naming day. I said no. Then I said yes, because she has never had anything bright in her life, and the boy looked at me as if I had handed him a star.

He brought the shirt back this morning. The pink button was gone and in its place was a bolt washer he had painted with a stolen brush, the paint still tacky, the thread around it pulled a little too tight. It was ugly and wonderful. I told him so. He went red and asked whether I would teach him to sew properly, and I said that depends on whether he can keep his needle steady while the ship shakes.

So I have set out the spare needle and the tin on the bench for when he comes. Bring the washer, Pilar, if you pass the dock on your rounds. I want the girl to see that a thing can be mended in more than one colour.