Small black anchor tattoo on the side of a finger, resting on a wooden table, with a colourful tattooed forearm visible beside it.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small anchor tattoo on a finger

Traditional · Hand · Mixed · Photo

A hand rests on a wooden surface, showing a small solid black anchor tattoo on the side of one finger. The linework is simple and clean, with the anchor shown in dark ink against the skin. A colourful tattooed forearm sits at the left edge of the frame, and a blurred figure in dark clothing appears at the right.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The relief boat came in on Tuesday with the paraffin and two sacks of post, and Mr Pryce from the harbour office says the anchor your mother had fixed above the lamp-room door was torn loose in the gale. I went up the iron ladder myself to check. The bracket is bare now, just a ring of rust where the bolts sat, and a gull standing on it as though it had paid for the room.

I have been thinking about what you said before you left for Whitby, that a man only needs one thing to hold him to the ground. You were twelve and sulking over the cake. I told you to go and find your own. You scratched a small black anchor into the slate by the back step, no bigger than a barley grain, and your mother swore the rain would wear it away by Christmas. It is still there. I checked this morning with the lamp unlit and the sun low over the mudflats.

The tide has turned twice since the storm. The light burns at dusk whether anyone is watching or not, so I keep the wick trimmed and count the ships on the horizon the way you taught me. Eleven yesterday, all heading north with their bows low in the water and their lamps bobbing like lost sparks.

Write when the bank holiday trains are running. I will leave the lower gate unlatched and the kettle on the hob.

Your father, Walter Greaves

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