Solid black cross tattoo on the upper chest of a shirtless man, cropped below the chin against a dark background.

Solid black cross on upper chest

Geometric · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A close crop of a shirtless man's neck, shoulders and chest against a black background, with the chin cut off by the frame. A bold, solid black cross sits on the upper chest, slightly off centre towards the right of the frame. The ink is flat and dense with clean, hard edges and no shading, and the image is entirely black and skin tones.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth, the yew hedge at Harrowgate is clipped square at last, and I have hung the shears on their nail for the winter. You will want to hear about the cross on the shed door. Mr Pell had it painted there in the spring of the great wet, a plain black cross the width of a man's forearm, mixed from tar and lamp black because he would not have a shade of grey anywhere near it. I told him the rain would lift it. He said then we would repaint it, and that was the end of the argument.

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We have repainted it every March since. It is the only thing in the walled garden that stays exactly as it was, its edges hard and flat, and the lads from the village have learned that when the cross is wet, the tools go back inside before anyone is allowed his tea. Pell never said why. I think he liked a rule that did not need explaining.

Last week young Tom Ashby asked me what the cross was for. I found I did not know, not properly. I told him it kept the shed door honest, which is what I tell everyone. He looked at it a long while, then went and hung the rake beneath it, careful not to let the wet tar touch his sleeve.

I think about Pell's hand on that brush every time I pass. Come home at Easter and I will show you the place where the first coat still shows through. Your loving sister, Margaret.

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