Colour traditional-style tattoo on an upper arm of a stack of books with a teacup and teapot, purple flowers and a banner with lettering.

Stacked books and teapot on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A stack of book spines sits at the centre of the design, topped by a steaming teacup and a teapot with a small blue flower, with purple flowers on either side. A ribbon banner below the books carries two lines of lettering in black outlined script, and the books have dark grey shading. The tattoo is filled with bold colour in the flowers, book spines and teapot details, and it is framed against the skin of the upper arm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

Keep reading

The ferry didn't run again today, so I've had the kitchen to myself and the kettle on since eight. Your grandfather would have laughed at me, pouring tea for a room with nobody in it. Instead I got the old books down from the loft. Robert's atlas with the broken corner, Daniel's lighthouse book, and Elizabeth's green Dickens that she swore she'd finished at twelve and never had.

I found the stack on the landing where they'd been left the summer the boys went south. Each cover had a name pencilled inside, as if a book could get lost in a house this small. I wiped the dust off with my sleeve and sat with them until the pot went cold, which is a thing I do now.

Here is what I want you to know. Elizabeth has asked for the Dickens back, and I said yes, though I should have kept it. Stories get passed hand to hand on an island. They don't stay on shelves. The line Daniel scrawled on the back of his exam card says we're all stories in the end, and I used to think that was sentimental rubbish. Today I think it's just accounting.

So I'm sending the books on Thursday's boat, with the good tea and a note in each. Make it a good one, love. You know what I mean.

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