Black and white photo of a fine line script tattoo in three vertical lines on the ribs, with the text set in a delicate lettering style.

Three lines of fine script on the ribs

Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A photograph of three thin, vertical rows of small script set on the side of the ribs, against plain pale skin. The linework is fine and even, with the lettering in solid black and no shading. The image is in black and white, with a white garment at the lower edge and a dark interior behind the body.

Fine line Lettering Ribs Script Lettering Line

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The rain has come in sideways again and the boarders have gone up early, so I am writing this at the kitchen table with the range ticking. Mrs Hobday in room four left her notebook behind on Tuesday. I meant to post it on, but I read the three lines on the inside cover first, written top to bottom in a hand that leans as if walking into wind. I have copied them out for you. They are not English, but they have the rhythm of the thing you used to say about the tide coming in under the pier.

I took the notebook to the station yesterday, and she told me the words belonged to her husband, a fisherman from Galway who went out in March and never came back. She laughed when she said it, the way people laugh when they have decided not to cry in public. She asked me to keep the book until Thursday, in case he came back to the harbour with a tale to explain himself.

He has not come back. But she has started sleeping with the window open, and this morning I found her on the sea wall reading the lines aloud to the gulls, who did not seem to mind.

I am sending you the copy. Tell me what the lines mean when you are next in port, and do not make something up to comfort me. Your loving sister, Ada.