Small black ink script tattoo on a forearm, next to a hand with yellow and patterned nails holding a gold-plated telephone receiver.

Small black script tattoo beside a gold receiver

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A hand with yellow and patterned nail polish grips a gold-plated telephone receiver against a pale tiled floor. A small black ink script tattoo sits on the forearm near the wrist, with bold, flowing strokes and solid fill. The composition is close and centred on the receiver, with the tattoo visible at the right edge of the frame.

Lettering Forearm Gold Script Arabic script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nadia, the gold receiver is back on its hook at the shop, though Mr Haddad insists it has never sounded the same since the plating man in Deira scrubbed it with vinegar. He ordered it for the new office in the spring, when everyone said a telephone that looked like a trophy would bring in customers. Nobody came. The only calls were from our cousins in Leeds, asking whether the line worked, and then hanging up to see if it did.

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Last Tuesday it rang at ten past three in the morning. I nearly ignored it, but the sound was so bright against the empty room that I lifted the gold earpiece and held it to my face. It was Tariq, the boy who painted the words on our front window years ago, calling from Muscat. He had forgotten how one of the letters curled at its tail. He had the whole sign in his head except that one stroke, and he could not sleep for it.

So I held the receiver against my wrist, where the cold metal kept the heat of my hand, and read him the word letter by letter from the window glass, which I can see from my chair. Every curl, every thick stroke. He repeated each one back to me slowly, like a child learning a prayer. When he finally said it right, he laughed so loudly that I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

Come at Eid. Bring your husband and the good tea, and we will sit in the office with the lights off so you can see the window from the street. The receiver is still warm from my hand, and I am not putting it down yet. Love, Samira.