Two traditional tattoos: a green and yellow face in profile with a pink heart and chain on the upper arm, and a cuffed hand holding a diamond with PRISONER JEWELLERY lettering on the thigh.

Traditional face, heart and chain with cuffed hand

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

The left tattoo shows a green and yellow profile face, outlined in bold black, with a pink heart and a gold ring joined by a chain. The right tattoo shows a cuffed hand holding a blue diamond, with a rose outlined in light blue on the hand and PRISONER and JEWELLERY lettering curving around it. Both use bold outlines and flat fills, and the two designs sit side by side in a split composition.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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They let me have the bench by the north window now, which the other lads say is a promotion, though it mostly means I get the draught. Gov Hartley brought in a box of paste stones from a charity shop in Hull and wants them set into brass rings for the Christmas bazaar. Forty rings. I told him paste is a lie with good manners, and he laughed as if I'd made a joke, which I suppose I did.

The heart pendant on the shelf above the vice is mine, the one I made in my first month, before anyone trusted me with a file. A pink tin heart, a gold ring soldered through the top, and a length of chain that runs off the edge of the card. Hartley keeps it in his drawer. He says it reminds him that a locked thing can still be lovely if you don't stare at the lock.

The diamond in my cuffed hand is real, so don't panic. It came in on a licence from a man called Pardoe who sold the Kirkgate estate silver, and I cut it myself last Tuesday under a magnifier so small my eyes watered for an hour. Hartley signed the sheet for it. I still can't tell whether he's protecting me or himself.

When I get out in March I want a shop on the cobbled end of Briggate with one window and one lamp. I'll hang the heart there with the chain pooled on the sill. If anyone asks what it means, I'll tell them it's a receipt.

Love, Dan

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