Black fine line tattoo on the inner forearm showing a city skyline, an arched bridge and the word Queens in script.

Skyline, bridge and script on forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A fine line tattoo of a city skyline with tall towers on the left, leading to a steel arch bridge with pylons in the centre. The word Queens is written in cursive script to the right of the bridge. The linework is single-weight and black, with no shading, and the design runs horizontally across the forearm against a blurred background.

Fine line Forearm Skyline Skyscraper Bridge Script Queen City

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the paint in the tin has gone to skin again, so I'm writing this on the back of a delivery docket while the lads argue over the thermos. We're out on the middle span this week, scraping back to bare steel where the rust has eaten through the rivets. From up here you can see the towers lined up over Queens, the tall ones catching the sun first, and the flats below going grey in the haze like someone has rubbed out the pencil lines.

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Mum would laugh at me. I told her when I left that I'd be home for Easter, and I've missed three. Dessie, the foreman, says the bridge remembers every man who ever painted it, that the old coats of lead lie under ours like letters under letters. I don't believe him, but I've started leaving a note in the cab each night, just to see if anyone reads them.

Yesterday a girl from the rail office walked the footpath with a cardboard tray of teas and asked which way was Queens. I pointed at the flats, then at my own hands, which were full of orange dust, and she said she'd never seen the city from underneath. I gave her my spare cap. She'll be the only person in the parish who knows what the bridge looks like from the steelwork side.

Enclosed is a flake of the old lead for the mantelpiece. Tell Mum I'm on the bridge, not under it. The whistle's going. I'll write again when the paint's dry, which by my count is never. Your loving brother, Tom.