Close-up of the words so it goes in black typewriter-style lettering across the upper chest, in a Lettering style tattoo.

'So it goes' quote in typewriter lettering

Lettering · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

The image shows the lowercase words so it goes in black ink on pale skin, centred in the frame. The letters use a typewriter-style serif face with clean, even linework and solid black fill. The ink is a single dark tone against a soft, slightly warm skin background, with the text sitting horizontally across the middle of the photo.

Lettering Chest Quote Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The typewriter sits on the lamp room's iron shelf because the damp got into the desk drawers years ago, and you have learned to type with the lamp turning above you, the beam sliding across the page every twelve seconds. Tuesday's entry is short. Wind south-west, force six, visibility poor in rain. Boat Mary Gittins overdue from Porthcadan. You type the words without capitals, the way the old man taught you, because capitals take more strikes and the ribbon is nearly spent.

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The telephone rings at two. The coxswain's voice is flat with cold. They found the hull on the Scar, not the men, and you write that down too, carbon paper between the sheets, pressing hard enough to feel each letter come through the back of the page. Somebody from the council will want a fair copy by Friday. You stop, wind the paper back, and type the line you have always typed when the sea has been greedy: so it goes.

Before dawn the light is still turning and you climb the stairs to wind the clockwork, counting the ninety-six steps the way you always do. Outside the glass the sea is grey and ordinary, and the gulls are already arguing over the bins at the harbour. You tear the sheet from the platen, fold it into the log, and leave the lamp burning for the boats that are still out.