Realistic-style thigh tattoo of a stack of books with pages curling into wing shapes, above the script 'I've lived a thousand lives'.

Stacked books and page wings on a thigh

Realism · Thigh · Mixed · Photo

A stack of worn hardback books sits at the bottom of the design, with three open pages above it that curl into wing-like shapes. Above them, black cursive script reads "I've lived a thousand lives". The books are shaded in muted browns, greens and reds with grey pages, while the lettering and linework are solid black.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mrs Hollis had already carried the third box of abandoned books up from the hall before she noticed the moths. They rose out of the spines of Mrs Gilchrist's paperbacks, pale and papery, lifting off the cloth bindings as if the pages had decided to leave. She swatted at them with a tea towel, and they settled on the windowsill, folding and unfolding, two of them tattered at the edges.

Keep reading

The guest had left in a hurry on a Tuesday, between the tide and the last train, owing eleven nights and a pair of gloves. She had left a stack of hardbacks on the bottom step, sea-stained, their corners gone soft. Mrs Hollis opened the topmost one and found a pencilled line on the flyleaf: I've lived a thousand lives, followed by a date from before the war.

She dusted the shelves that evening and set the books back in the order the guest had left them, bottom to top, the way a person builds a wall they intend to climb later. Then she opened the window. The wind off the harbour came in cold, and the pages on the sill lifted, caught the air, and went out over the rooftops towards the lighthouse, pale as gulls.

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