Small black heart-shaped tattoo with a curled tail sits on the neck behind a person's ear, drawn in a fine line style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Small heart with tail behind the ear

Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

A small, solid black tattoo shows a heart-like shape with a curled tail and pointed tip, placed on the skin behind the ear. The linework is clean and bold for its size, with no shading. The photograph is warm-toned and sepia-leaning, with the ear, dark hair and a hand with dark nail polish framing the tattoo.

Fine line Neck Heart Tail Symbol

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The boat came in at six with the tide turned and the gulls screaming over the gutting table, and I have not stopped shaking the cold out of my hands since. Skipper says the Marigold goes out again Thursday if the glass holds. I told him I would be on her. I am writing so you have it in my hand if I don't come back up the quay.

Remember the float net you spliced for me when we were children, the one with the cork marked on its underside? You pressed a heart into the wood with the hot nail and then gave it a tail, because you said a heart without one would only sit still and sink. I have kept that cork in my oilskin pocket for eleven years. Yesterday, off the Dogger, the net fouled and I went over the rail with the knife in my teeth. When I came up I was looking straight at that tail under the water, dark and curled, and I laughed so hard I swallowed a mouthful of brine.

Mr Abbott on the stern says it was luck, and he may be right. But I keep thinking of your little tail pointing the way down, the way a heart goes when nobody is holding it, and I think I owe you proper thanks. Enclosed is the cork. Hang it somewhere the sea can't reach.

Keep the kettle on. I'll knock three times when I'm home.

Yours, Tom