Black and grey tattoo of a sombrero with a zigzag band and a bandolier on the upper arm, shaded in soft grey tones.

Sombrero and bandolier on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo of a sombrero with a zigzag patterned band sits on the outer upper arm. Below the hat, a bandolier curves down alongside a dark, softly shaded form with blended grey tones. The photo is taken outdoors in daylight, with the arm filling most of the frame and a blue sleeve at the top edge.

Upper arm Hat

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The hat hung on its nail behind the bar at the Gallo Azul for eleven years before anyone asked whose it was. Ruben Oseguera took it down every Sunday to brush the dust from the zigzag band, then hung it back up with the brim turned against the glare from the street. Nobody in Socorro del Norte could agree on the man who had left it there. Some said he was a horse thief, others a schoolmaster who had gone north to find his sister.

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The answer came in an envelope postmarked Chihuahua, addressed to the cantina in a hand that pressed so hard it nearly tore the paper. Inside was one sheet and a strip of cartridges, the brass gone dull and green at the seams. The writer said the belt was Ruben's now, since he could not carry both the hat and the debt, and asked him to tell the girl that the rain had come back on Tuesday and he had been glad of it. Ruben read the letter twice standing under the empty nail, then read it aloud to the mule outside, which seemed to take it well.

He did not sell the belt. He wound it around the crown of the hat and set the pair in the front window, where the afternoon sun could reach them. The shadows the cartridges threw across the floorboards looked, in the late light, like the ribs of a small animal lying down to sleep. Pilar, who swept the bar on Saturdays, asked him why he kept such a sorry thing on show.

He said the sun needed something to do in the mornings, and went back to pouring.