Black fine line script tattoo reading "this too shall pass" across the upper back, with a beige lace top and teal fabric visible above it.

"This too shall pass" script on the back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo is the phrase "this too shall pass" written in a flowing cursive script in black ink across the upper back. The linework is thin and even, with the letters joined and slightly slanted. Beige lace and teal fabric sit at the top of the frame, and the photo is warm in tone with the skin shown in close focus.

Fine line Lettering Back Script Phrase Lettering Lace

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The last tent came down on a Tuesday, which Mr Haddow said was bad luck, though he said that about most days. We folded the canvas in the rain on Clay Lane Field, outside Spalding, while the pony Duchess stood under the hawthorn with her head down, unbothered by the whole business.

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Above the ticket hatch of the Pavilion wagon there was a phrase my grandmother had painted back when the crowds stood three deep at the gate. She had copied it from a card in a hospital waiting room, looping the letters so the words seemed to lean into the wind. When the takings dropped, she would tap the board with her knuckle and say it aloud, as if the words were a fare we could still afford.

I spent the last week packing the wardrobe. Lace petticoats from the aerialist, Rosa's teal satin cape that smelled of sawdust and carbolic soap, a box of brass rings that never caught the light the way they used to. Each thing went into a tea chest labelled in my own hand, and each label I wrote more carefully than I needed to, as though neatness might buy us another season.

On the final morning I took a tin of black enamel and a fine brush and went over the faded letters on the hatch. My hand shook, and the joins came out uneven, but the words stood up dark against the paint. Mr Haddow read them, nodded once, and climbed into the cab. The rain eased. Behind us the field was already greening over.