Black linework tattoo on an upper leg showing the words BAD LUCK IS BETTER THAN NO LUCK, a skull and crossed bones, with a hand touching the skin.

Skull, bones and quote tattoo on a thigh

Lettering · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a healed or fresh tattoo on an upper leg, with the phrase BAD LUCK IS BETTER THAN NO LUCK in block capitals above a large skull and a bone. Smaller doodled shapes and skull-like motifs sit around the skull, and a hand with black marks on its fingers rests at the lower edge of the frame. The design is in black ink with no shading or colour, set against pale skin and a dark background.

Lettering Thigh Skull Bone Lettering Quote Hand Doodle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Brother Cassius, the cart from Noviomagus finally brought your letter, though the seal was half melted and the wax smelled of the river. You ask whether I still sit at the bone-yard gate cutting dice for the legion men. I do. Trade is thin since the frost, but the soldiers still come, and they still pay in copper they have won or borrowed.

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Last market day a young tribune's clerk bought a set of six from me, the ones with the small skull cut into the one face, the pattern I learned from the old Gaulish carver when I was your age. He laughed and asked whether the skull meant death or only bad throws. I told him it meant both, and that a man who plays with bone should expect the grin. Then he read the words I had scratched on the lid of the box, slowly, moving his lips: bad luck is better than no luck. He took the set and went off whistling.

Now the part you will not like. I have been thinking about your debt to the wine merchant on the Watling road. You wrote that you have nothing left but the dice in your belt. Keep them. Throw them when the men gather under the bridge, and if the bones come up empty, at least your hands will be busy instead of counting what you lost.

The box is on the shelf above the hearth, fresh cut and still sweet with cedar oil. I kept the best pair for you. Come home before the thaw and I will show you where the skull has been worn smooth by my thumb. Your sister sends her love and says you owe her a sheep.