Solid black grenade tattoo in a blackwork style on the inside of a forearm, with a hand holding the arm against a red plaid bed.

Solid black grenade on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A solid black grenade with a segmented body, a ring pull and a lever sits on the forearm, with the outline of each segment left as bare skin. The ink is flat black with no shading, and the crisp edges show a clean, graphic finish. The background is a red and cream plaid bedspread and a beige curtain, which fill most of the frame behind the arm.

Blackwork Forearm Pin Ring

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ronnie,

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The lodger in number six has finally gone, and he left his tin of bits behind with the rent owing. Under the bed, wrapped in newspaper, was a grenade. Not a live one, before you start. The Sergeant from the depot came round on Tuesday, turned it over in his hands and said it was a dummy, dead as a doornail, with the pin still through the ring. He wanted it. I said the rent came first.

It sat on my kitchen table all week, squat and black, its segments like the markings on a tortoise's back, and I kept catching myself counting the ridges while I peeled potatoes. Mr Dunmore from the bakery says they had them at the Somme in tins the size of a loaf. I don't know about that. I only know the ring on top is a proper bit of wire, and that when you lift it the whole thing comes up light as a hollow egg.

So this morning I took it down to the front and set it on the bench by the shelter, where the tide was out and the sand had gone the colour of stewed tea. A little boy came and asked if it was a bomb. I said it was a pudding basin with ambitions. He laughed so hard he dropped his ice cream.

I'm keeping the pin. Come Sunday and I'll hand it over, and you can tell me what it is you've been carrying about in your coat pocket since March.

Love, Mum