Colour tattoo of two pastel conversation heart sweets reading SHUT UP and GO AWAY, with sparkles and teal flowers, in a neo-traditional style on skin.

Shut up and go away conversation hearts

Neo-trad · Other · Colour · Photo

The tattoo shows two overlapping conversation heart sweets, one purple with the words SHUT UP and one pink with the words GO AWAY, surrounded by yellow sparkles, teal flower shapes and small black dots. The outlines are bold and black, with flat fills and small dotted highlights on the hearts. Pastel purple, pink, yellow and teal are set against the pale skin, and the design is centred in the frame.

Neo-trad Other Heart Lettering Sparkle Flower Dot

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The hearts come off the drum in rows of forty, still warm, and it is your job to pull the misprints before they reach the packers. Mavis has the next station down and has not stopped talking since the morning whistle. She tells you about her sister's hip, the bus driver who keeps taking the corner wide, the new lad whose cousin sells hot tubs. You nod and reach for another tray. Your fingers have been sticky to the second knuckle since nine.

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The stamping press clacks above you. Each heart gets its two lines of red lettering, SHUT UP on the lilac ones and GO AWAY on the pink, and the foreman has ordered the trays mixed so nobody can say a batch was lazy. Mavis says the lilac ones are the rude ones and the pink ones are only sulking. Then she asks what you think of her new fringe. You tell her it's a fine fringe. She says that's not what the foreman told her, and she will hold you to it.

At half four the lights in the hall dim for shift change, and for a minute nobody speaks. You pick up a lilac heart that has come out smudged, the P in UP bleeding into a blur, and slip it into your apron pocket. Mavis catches you at the door. She says nothing, only holds out her palm, and you give her the sweet. She squints at it, sniffs, and pops it on her tongue.

Outside, the sea is grey over the wall and the gulls are working the bins. You walk the long way to the bus stop, reading the ruined heart in the last of the light, two small commands kissing in the wrapper. Tomorrow Mavis will tell you the driver finally took the corner right. You will say, gently, that you know, because you saw him do it.