Two matching forearm tattoos in black ink: a ship's wheel with the words 'be the one to guide me' and an anchor with 'but never let me down'.

Ship's wheel and anchor with matching quote tattoos

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two inner forearms are shown side by side, each with a black ink tattoo. The left arm has a ship's wheel with script reading 'be the one to guide me', and the right arm has an anchor with script reading 'but never let me down'. The linework and shading are in black and grey, with the wheel and anchor shaded for depth against a plain, light background.

Lettering Traditional Forearm Ship's wheel Anchor Script Quote Matching tattoo Nautical

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You hear the tug before you see it, a low horn coming up the Humber through the fog, and you are already pulling on your oilskins when Nell shouts from the galley that the Maud Lacey has lost her tow. Out past the breakwater the lights of the port smear into orange, and the harbour office radio crackles with names you half know.

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You have worked nights with Nell for eleven winters. She takes the wheel in weather because her hands do not shake, and you go forward to the anchor because someone has to be the one who says when the chain is going to run. Tonight the swell comes in long and grey, and the Maud Lacey's skipper has the sense to stay still. You feel the cable go taut through the deck plates, and Nell calls the revolutions as if she is reading out a hymn.

Near three in the morning the fog thins to a scatter of rain. The tow line parts clean, and for a second nobody moves. Then Nell, who has never once in eleven years asked you for anything, says into the radio, "Hold her, I've got the bow," and you understand that the words she has given you are the ones you have been carrying for years without knowing they were yours.

At dawn you climb down to the quay with salt in your collar. Gulls work the wet timber. You look back up at the wheelhouse, where Nell is still turning the spokes slowly in the grey light, and you raise a hand. She does not wave back. She simply eases the bow round toward home, and you start walking.