Fine line purple tally marks on the inner wrist, with three tiny star shapes on the palm near the heel of the hand.

Tally marks and tiny stars on wrist and palm

Fine line · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A hand held palm up shows five purple tally marks on the inner wrist, four upright strokes crossed by a fifth, above a grey sweater cuff. Three small star-like marks sit lower on the palm, near the heel of the hand. The thin, single-colour linework is simple and even, against warm skin on a dark background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You have been counting the nights on the inside of the door frame since the relief boat stopped coming in October, and the pencil is nearly worn to a stub. Tonight the wind has swung round to the north-east and the lamp hisses like a kettle left on the hob. Mrs Ferris's letter is still folded in your pocket, its one line of news read so often the creases have gone soft as cloth.

Keep reading

Five strokes for each week, four upright and one laid across them, the way your father taught you to tally the herring boats coming home past the Skerry. Below the gallery rail the sea is black and you cannot see the rocks, but you know exactly where they are. Three stars came out at nine. You wrote them small on the back of the log, because the log is for the weather, and the weather is what the Board reads.

On the eleventh night a yellow light bobs up low on the water, steady as a thought you keep having. You take the iron stairs two at a time, the cold cutting through your jersey, and stand on the landing with the lamp at your back so they can find the steps. By the time the boat noses against the stone, your hands are already reaching for the rope.

Later, with the boat gone and the tea gone cold, you open the door frame and find the pencil. You make one more mark, but you don't cross it. You just leave it standing there on its own, because for once there is nothing left to count.

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