Enlarged with AI from a smaller original
Small skull and crown on the hands
Fine line · Hand · Black and grey · Photo
Two small tattoos sit on the skin of two hands in a close black and white photograph. A shaded skull with soft grey tones is on the upper hand, and a finely lined crown with detailed texture is on the other hand between the thumb and finger. The composition is tight, with the light falling across the skin and a bright gap between the hands.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Tomasz, the tide took the north stairs again on Tuesday, and I have finally stopped pretending I can fix them alone. You will remember our old wager on the landing, the one with the farthing and the chipped penny. Heads for the crown, tails for the skull. You always said the crown was a king's joke, and I always said the skull was the honest one. The farthing has been in my waistcoat pocket since you left, and I have turned it over every night the lamp needed trimming.
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Last week a ship's boy came ashore from the Mary Ann with a fever and no name, only a scrap of paper with the ink gone blue. The mate wanted him buried at sea. I told him the rock has no ground deep enough, so we kept the boy in the boathouse and I sat with him three nights. On the third he asked which of us had won. I did not understand until he held up his hand and showed me the little crown someone had pricked into the skin there, and the skull beside it, both smudged grey with age. Give it to the one who keeps watch, he said, and then he laughed like a boy who had been saving that joke all his life.
I have enclosed the farthing. Come and collect your debt before the autumn gales. The light is good this month and the gulls are louder than ever.
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