Black and grey photo of a fine line script tattoo reading Stay strong on the ribs, partly under a black lace bra.

Stay strong script on the ribs

Lettering · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo reads "Stay strong" in a flowing cursive script, with a looping capital S and a connected lowercase style. The lines are thin and even, rendered in solid black ink on the side of the torso. The black and white photograph is taken at close range, with the edge of a black lace bra visible above the tattoo.

Lettering Fine line Ribs Stay strong Script Phrase Quote

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The departure board at Carlisle has flickered to blank for the third time since ten, and you stand beneath it with your brother's suitcase at your feet, listening to rain tick against the glass canopy. Dennis wants to go back to the waiting room where the radiator works. You tell him the 21:20 is still listed, and it is, if you squint hard enough at the little amber letters.

Keep reading

He keeps the letter from the council in the inside pocket of his coat, folded into quarters, and you know without asking that he has read it more times than its four short sentences deserve. The signature at the bottom is a looping hand that leans uphill, the same hand that wrote your birthday cards for thirty years. Every word in it seems to be hurrying somewhere it has no business going.

When the train finally slides in, breathing steam over the platform, he climbs aboard without looking back, the way he used to leave the school gates. You stay on the cold concrete until the last carriage lights have gone, then take the pen from your handbag and write on the back of the council envelope, pressing so hard the nib snags the paper. Two words, joined by a small swing at the end, the way your mother taught you to finish a sentence.

On the bus home you fold it small and slide it into the pocket of his old school jumper, the one he left hanging in your hallway, so he will find it in the morning. It is the only advice your mother ever gave that you could actually carry.