Black and white photo of a small, fine line black anchor tattoo on the side of the ribs, below the arm.

Small anchor tattoo on the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a woman's side torso, with her arm raised and a dark sleeveless top worn low at the side. A small, solid black anchor sits on the skin of the ribcage below the armpit. The linework is fine and simple, with the tattoo occupying a small area at the centre of the frame against plain, pale skin.

Fine line Ribs Anchor

Find an artist for this

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

Dad said an anchor was only a weight with ambitions, and he should know, having hauled one up the slipway at Saltmarsh Quay for thirty-one years before his knees gave out. I had the little iron one from his workbench in my coat pocket the afternoon the ferry stopped running, and I turned it over on the harbour wall while the gulls argued about the tide.

Keep reading

Clive Oddie, who taught me to splice rope before I could spell my own name, said the crossing would be rough by four. I told him I wasn't going to Scarrow Island. I was going up the valley to Hollin Bridge, where there was no water deeper than a bath and nobody had ever needed to know which way the wind sat.

I wrote to Dad every Sunday that first winter. The letters came back unopened, which I took to mean he'd gone out on the boat without his glasses. In March a parcel arrived with his tide tables inside, every page marked in pencil, and a note that said only: Stop anchoring where you don't mean to stay.

I pinned the little iron anchor above the kitchen sink, where I can see it while I wash up. Some mornings the river at the bottom of the lane runs high and brown and smells of salt, and I stand there with my hands in the cold water, going nowhere, just holding on.