Black and grey realism tattoo of a star with torn skin edges revealing words such as freedom and love, on the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Torn skin star with words on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo on the upper arm and shoulder shows a star whose edges appear to peel back like torn skin, revealing words in a serif typeface. The words include freedom, love, family, friendship and tolerance, with shading that creates a raised, three-dimensional effect. A faint sprig of foliage sits at the top left of the shoulder, and a plain white vest is worn beside the tattoo against a dark background.

Realism Upper arm Shoulder Star Torn skin Word Freedom Love Family Sprig

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The varnish came off the Clarence Street star in long curls, the way sunburn peels, and under it were the words I had been told to paint over. Mr Pell wanted six words in plain capitals for the lifeboat house, nothing fancy. I told him the old letters were already there, a faded list in brown.

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Freedom. Love. Family. Friendship. Tolerance. Integrity. Someone had painted them the year the harbour wall went up, before the storms took the lamp off the pier and before the yard closed. The brushwork was careful, every serif finished, as if the painter expected the board to outlast the men who carried it.

I spent three evenings with a scalpel and a tin of linseed, lifting the flaked paint one point at a time. The wood beneath was silver-grey and smelled of the sea. My daughter came down on the Thursday with a flask and asked why I was not simply sanding it back. I said the words had been there longer than the varnish, and it seemed rude to erase them.

On the Saturday Mr Pell stood a long while with his hands in his coat. Then he dipped a brush in my tin and, without a word, ran a thin line of gold along the star's edge, leaving the old letters bare. We hung it that afternoon, the light off the bay catching every raised word.