Close photo of a black serif lettering tattoo reading 'You are an expression of the universe' in centred lines on the upper arm, with a dark t-shirt sleeve rolled above it.

Text quote tattoo on upper arm

Lettering · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows the upper arm of a person wearing a dark, loose t-shirt with the sleeve rolled up. The tattoo is a quote set in capital serif letters in black ink, arranged in five centred lines reading 'YOU ARE AN EXPRESSION OF THE UNIVERSE'. The lettering is crisp and even against pale skin, and the plain white background keeps the focus on the text.

Lettering Upper arm Quote Text Word Serif lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The rain had come in sideways off the estuary and the market at Hollin Cross was emptying fast, canvas flapping over the cheese stalls. Mabel Strood sat under the last awning with a tin of type sorts and a board of damp card, because the letter-cutter was always the last to leave. A boy came running with a shilling in his fist and asked her to cut him something that would stop him getting lost.

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She did not ask him what he wanted. Her mother had taught her that the words a person needed were seldom the ones they named. She set the sorts one line above another and pressed them into the card: YOU, ARE AN, EXPRESSION, OF THE, UNIVERSE. The boy frowned. "That's not a map," he said. "No," said Mabel. "It's what the map is drawn from."

He read it three times, lips moving, then asked how much. She shook her head. The rain was loosening the lid of her tin and the gutters ran brown past her boots. He pressed the card inside his coat and walked off between the emptying stalls, and she watched his grey cap go under the arches until the crowd took it.

Forty winters later a surveyor came through Hollin Cross with a theodolite and found a yellowed card pinned behind the fishmonger's counter. He copied the five lines into his notebook without understanding them. Outside, the rain had started again, and the ink ran a little at the edges before he reached his car.