Colour tattoo of three sea turtles in teal, purple and orange on the outside of an ankle.

Three sea turtles on an ankle

Ankle · Colour · Photo

Three sea turtles are tattooed in a descending line down the ankle and lower leg, each seen from above with flippers spread. The shells are filled with dark ink and outlined in orange, purple or yellow, with thick teal borders around the flippers and heads. The bold, solid colour sits against a plain skin background with a soft, dim backdrop.

Ankle Sea turtle Turtle Shell Animal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Maud, the galley stove gave up on Tuesday and I have been living on biscuit and opinions ever since. Mr Pryce says the Corvina will make Freetown by the new moon, though he said the same at the last port and we are still sailing past the same grey gull.

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Three turtles have followed us for four days now, one big, one middling, one no bigger than a saucer. The big one keeps to the bow wave as if it is paid to. The middle one drops back to the stern in the afternoons and comes up again at dusk, teal flippers spread flat like it is wading a river. The little one I cannot tell from the weed, but the boy on watch swears its shell has a gold rim, and he would know, he can tell a mackerel from a sprat at a hundred yards.

Yesterday the big one stopped dead and let the whole ship pass over it. I stood at the rail with the peel knife still in my hand and thought of Papa and his stories about the sea keeping count of everything that crosses it. He said turtles were the ship's own ledger, kept in the water, and when one went missing the sea would send another to balance the books. I told him that was nonsense. Now I am not so sure, because the little one has come up level with the rudder every morning since, as if checking the figures.

I have set the three of them down in ink so there is a copy on your side too, in case the sea keeps its books better than the purser. Keep the kettle on. I will be home by spring, with or without the stove.