Close-up of a small grey traditional-style anchor tattoo on the neck behind the ear, with a white earphone cord visible.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small anchor tattoo behind the ear

Traditional · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small anchor with a shaded grey body, dark outline and a thin rope-like detail sits on the skin behind the ear. The image is a close, softly lit photograph with dark hair falling across the upper part of the frame. The tattoo is centred in the lower-left area and the background is out of focus.

Traditional Neck Anchor Nautical

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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

Mam, the boats came in late again on Tuesday, so I'm writing this on the back of a fish crate while Dougie argues with the net mender about the price of tar. The Morag Rose lost her starboard warp off the Sule Skerry and we spent four hours hauling in the dark with lamps tied to the rail. Captain Ferrier says the anchor chain will need reshackling before we go out again, which means I'll be on my knees in the bilge with a spanner and a bad temper.

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The anchor on the quay is still the old one, the one with the crusted bill and the rope gone green. Nobody has had the heart to take it to the scrapper. Ferrier touches it every morning before he climbs aboard, like a man checking his pockets for keys. I asked him once why, and he said it was the only thing on the whole harbour that had never once been let go of, not properly, and that was the whole reason it was worth touching.

I thought about that on the long drift home with the gulls screaming over the wheelhouse. I thought about you at the sink, and how you always held onto the kitchen table when the ferry rocked past the window. I'll be back for the Sunday tide, if the weather holds and the engine doesn't die on me again. Keep the kettle warm.

Your loving son, Callum.