Black ink drawing of a top hat with a ribbon, above the quote "It's only a dream..." and the word ALICE, in a fine line style, shown as a tattoo design on white.

Top hat with ribbon and Alice quote

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A pen and ink drawing of a top hat with a ribbon tied around its base, shown in outline with fine hatching on the crown and brim. Beneath it is the handwritten quote "It's only a dream..." followed by the word ALICE in small capitals. The design is centred on a plain white background in black ink only.

Fine line Top hat Hat Ribbon Quote Script Alice Lettering

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Hetty, the block for Mr Lusk's hat came back from the steamer with its ribbon tied the wrong way round, and I have stopped pretending I did it. You know how I am about knots. I have measured the crown twice and it is still the same width it was on Tuesday, when he came in with his gloves in his pocket and asked whether a hat could be made to forget the head it sat on.

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I told him we make hats to keep the sun off, not to keep anything in. He laughed and said his wife had told him the same, then went quiet and rubbed the silk lining of the sample between his finger and thumb. He wanted a crown with a fine grey hatch, the sort you would use for a rainy sky, and a band he could tie himself. I said a band is only a band. He said so is a dream, provided you keep reminding yourself it is one.

I finished it Thursday. Ink on the brim, shadow beneath the crown, the ribbon hanging loose at the back like a question nobody has asked yet. On Friday the shop bell rang and there was no one in the doorway, only the hat on the counter with its ribbon tied in a bow I have never learned. I wrote the words on the tag in my best hand, because it seemed the sort of thing a customer ought to be told.

I have not sold the block. It sits on the shelf above the kettle, and every morning I turn it a quarter so the ribbon faces the window. I cannot tell whether that is good hatmaking or a kind of waiting. Come on Sunday. Bring the good tea.