Black and grey traditional-style anchor tattoo with a rope wrapped around the shaft, sitting on the neck just behind a person's ear.

Small anchor tattoo behind the ear

Traditional · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small anchor with a rope coiled around its shaft is tattooed on the skin behind the ear, with the ear and a dark ear gauge visible at the left of the frame. The anchor is outlined and shaded in black and grey, with a rounded highlight on the metal and soft shadowing along the flukes. The tattoo is centred in the frame against plain skin and dark hair.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The anchor came up from the lamp room yesterday, wrapped in a bit of sacking, and your dad's initials are still scratched on the stock where he kept it hidden under the stairs. I know you said to keep it safe until you're back on land for good, but the rope has gone stiff with the damp and I thought you'd want it oiled before the next crossing.

Mr Haskins from the Co-op says the new shaft at Eppleton has taken on forty men since the spring, and the colliery band is practising 'Abide With Me' for the Whit walk again. Your Aunt Bea has started wearing her good hat to chapel on weekdays, which tells me she has her eye on the widower from Hetton. I told her to mind her manners and she told me to mind mine.

The thing I wanted to say is this. Your grandfather worked the coal face for thirty-one years and never once saw the sea, yet he kept a little brass anchor on the mantel, because he said a man needs something heavy to hold him to the ground when the ground itself won't stay put. I used to think it was foolish. Now I think he was right, and I'm glad the rope on yours is coiled so tight.

Mind the weather off the Bay, and write when you make port. Enclosed is a pressed primrose from the bank by the pit wheel. It's the first one this year.

Your loving mam, Nora

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