Two small black fine line tattoos, a ship's wheel on the left foot and an anchor on the right, both placed on the inner heel near the ankle.

Ship wheel and anchor on two feet

Fine line · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

Two bare feet are photographed from above against a grey-green carpet, with the heels angled toward the camera. A small black ship's wheel sits on the left foot and a small black anchor sits on the right, both drawn with thin, even outlines and no visible shading. The tattoos are mirrored and centred on the heels, with the pale skin and soft carpet giving a plain background.

Fine line Ankle Ship wheel Anchor Nautical Feet

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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

The function room at the Sea Lantern smells of floor polish and warm sausage rolls, and the disco lights keep catching the name badges people have forgotten to take off. I find Maggie Dunphy by the coat rail, the only person here who still wears her hair the way she did in Year Eleven. She sees me before I see her and holds up a paper cup as if it's a toast.

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We were fifteen when we made our pact on the back of a geography jotter. We'd buy a boat from the scrapyard at Harnell Quay, sail it to Norway, and never once look at a timetable. She drew the ship's wheel, all spokes and handles, and I drew the anchor, because someone had to keep us from drifting off. We were so sure of it that we went down to the little parlour above the chip shop with our pocket money, and the man there didn't even ask if we were sure. He just said the wheel would sting less on the heel than the anchor would.

"Never got further than the harbour wall," Maggie says. "Council planning. Three kids and a mortgage on a semi." I tell her about the bookshop and the flat above it, and how I sold the one-way ticket I bought in a fit of nerve. We laugh until someone's auntie shushes us from the buffet.

Then Maggie pulls a biro from her handbag and draws a small wheel on the back of a paper napkin, the spokes slightly wobbly now. She slides it across the table. I take the pen and add an anchor beside it, which is the only honest thing I can think of to do.