Small black fine line anchor tattoo with a heart-shaped ring on the inner forearm near the wrist.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small anchor with heart near the wrist

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small black anchor sits on pale skin, with a tiny heart forming the ring at the top of the shank. The linework is thin and even, and the anchor is filled with solid black ink. The tattoo is centred in a close, slightly warm-toned photo with a dark edge at the left.

Fine line Forearm Anchor Heart

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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I am writing this on the back of a dance card because the purser has taken every proper sheet for the manifests, and because I promised you I would not go a whole month without putting pen to something. The Ballroom at Saltburn was loud on Saturday. Mrs Pugh won the spot prize again, a tin of Bovril, and the band played "Moonlight Bay" four times because nobody could agree on a last waltz.

I danced with the girl from the chip shop, the one with the red ribbon. I told her about you, so you needn't worry, she did not take me for a tall tale. She laughed and said every sailor in Hull has a sweetheart in every port, and I said that is only because we all sail to the same ports. Then she asked to see the anchor I had done in Wapping before the war, the one on my wrist with the little heart at the top of the shank. She said it looked like a key that had forgotten what it opened.

I have thought about that all week. Reckon it opens you. Every time the cable runs out and the chain goes tight, I look down at that small black hook holding fast, and I think of the heart at the top, which is you, and the iron beneath it, which is me doing the hauling.

Only nine weeks now. Keep the lamp lit on the landing. I will know it from the bar.

Yours, with salt in my hair, Tom