Traditional style colour tattoo of a sailing ship above an anchor and waves, framed by green leaves and a red rose, on an upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ship, anchor and rose on an upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A sailing ship with grey sails and a red flag sits above a dark anchor wrapped in a gold rope, with stylised teal waves beneath it. Three birds fly in the sky around the ship, and a red five-petal flower with a yellow centre and a dark red banner sit at the top of a wreath of green leaves with red berries. Bold black outlines, flat fills and a light grey shading in the sails give the piece a classic American traditional look, with colour dominating the design.

Traditional Upper arm Ship Sailing ship Anchor Rose Leaves Wave Bird Rope Flag

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The Marguerite Lowe came up the estuary on Tuesday with her sails furled and a red flag at the masthead, which Mrs Pell at the chandlery says means a death aboard or a cargo she won't name. Nobody knows which. The men are still sleeping it off in the Anchor, where you used to make me wait outside while you lied about your age.

I have the wreath you sent from Lisbon hung over the kitchen door. The paper rose has gone the colour of weak tea, but the berries have kept their red, and every morning I touch the banner to see if it has dried. Your card said you would be home before the herring, and the herring came and went, and so did the gulls, three of them this week, working the tide line as if they had a grudge against the pier.

Mother asked me to tell you the sea wall is finally mended. Father's rope is still coiled in the shed where he left it, gold where the tar has worn away. I cannot bring myself to shift it.

If the Lowe's first mate knows where you were bound after Cadiz, write and tell me plainly. Don't dress it up in sea talk. I have learned to read the weather in the tide and the mood of the post office clock, and I can read a letter that is trying to be brave.

Yours, always, Nell