Black typewriter-style lettering reading imagine on the upper back, near the left shoulder blade, of a person with auburn hair seen from behind.

The word imagine on the upper back

Lettering · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A small tattoo of the word imagine in a typewriter-style serif font sits on the upper back, close to the shoulder blade. The ink is solid black with clean, slightly uneven edges, and the letters are set in a single line against plain, pale skin. The photograph is taken from behind with soft natural light and a plain light background, keeping the focus on the lettering.

Lettering Back Word Typewriter font Text

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The Olivetti had lived in my father's shed since the year he stopped trusting the council, and the i key still stuck. I pressed it twice to free the arm, then typed the word I had been avoiding for three weeks: imagine. It came out crooked, the dot a little high, the way every word from that machine has come out since 1974. Dad would have called the machine honest. Mum would have called it stubborn, and then she would have made the tea.

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Priya was marrying Tom on Saturday at the lido in Margate, and I was the best man, which meant I owed them a speech. I had written four drafts in biro and torn each one into quarters. They all opened with a list of Tom's failings, which Priya had forbidden, and they all ran out of road in the middle of the second paragraph, where I could not think what came next.

On Friday night I sat with the machine and a mug of tea gone cold. Tucked under the carriage I found a folded card in Dad's square handwriting: Type what you can see, not what you fear. I had always assumed it was advice about the typewriter. I typed the speech in capitals so the sticking key would not matter, and when I reached the last line I took the page out and read it aloud to the empty shed.

On Saturday the wind came off the sea and tried to take the paper from my hands. I read them the one line I had not torn up: Imagine a house where nobody has to fix the i key alone. Priya laughed first, then Tom, then half the lido, and I stood there with the crooked word still wet on the page while the gulls went on about their business above the water.