Close-up of a small black lettering tattoo running along the side of a person's hip and upper thigh, in a fine, neat style.

Small black lettering on the hip

Lettering · Thigh · Black and grey · Photo

A close-up of a person in black swimwear shows a small block of black lettering on the outer hip and upper thigh. The letters are thin and evenly spaced, and the text runs at an angle, appearing rotated in the photo. The background is out of focus, with warm skin tones and a black garment dominating the frame.

Lettering Fine line Thigh Text

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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

The ferry leaves Sallow Quay at six, and by the time you reach the slip the writing on the parcel has already begun to smear in the drizzle. You are the only one on the harbour who reads the old script, which is why Mrs Tennant pressed the package into your hands with her thumb over the lettering and said, do not let the sea have this one.

Keep reading

Inside the oilcloth is a single sheet folded into eight, the paper gone soft as cotton. The hand is slanted and careful, the lines running at an angle across the page as though the writer had tilted the table to keep their elbow dry. Three words, then a blot, then a name you half remember from the winter your father mended nets on the east side of Inchcarra. You have spent years learning to read what the island leaves unsaid.

You tell yourself it is a thank you, or an apology, or a bill. On the crossing, gulls keep pace with the hull and spray rattles the wheelhouse glass in fistfuls. Halfway over you unfold it again and see that the blot is not ink at all but a thumbprint, pressed by someone who could not wait for the page to dry.

When the ferry noses into Inchcarra you walk the cliff path without stopping. The cottage door stands open. On the step sits a tin mug of tea gone cold, and beside it a second sheet, identical, waiting for an answer you have not yet learned how to write.