Black ink flash sheet of tribal-style sea turtle designs with spirals, geometric patterns and a hibiscus, with bubble outlines, drawn on white.

Tribal sea turtle flash sheet

Black and grey · Flash

A flash sheet of sea turtle designs in a bold tribal style, with one large turtle at the top and several smaller turtles below, plus a row of tiny turtles along the bottom. The designs use solid black shapes filled with spirals, geometric patterns, scales and a hibiscus flower, with open circles for bubbles. The turtles are set on a plain white background with no colour.

Turtle Sea turtle Spiral Hibiscus Bubble Geometric pattern Tribal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The turtles came up the beach on the third night after the boat left, which I suppose is the sort of news you'll want, though you never wrote to ask. Forty-one of them, by my count, and I counted twice because your grandfather always said a number nobody checks is only a guess. They hauled themselves over the wrack line one at a time, heavy as wet cement, and dug with their back flippers as though the sand owed them money.

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The old one with the notch out of her left flipper came first, the one the children called Mrs Pell after the postmistress who used to bite the end off every stamp. Her shell had those spirals on it, the same ones your grandfather cut into the bench outside the kitchen, and she wore them like a good coat. Behind her, the hibiscus by the pier had dropped three red flowers onto the sand, and I picked them up because I couldn't think what else to do with my hands.

We sat with the lamp turned low and waited for the hatching. It took until nearly four. The little ones came out all at once, a scrabbling black tide no bigger than the palm of a hand, and went for the water as if someone had shouted their names. Most of them did not look back. One did. It stopped at the edge of the foam, turned its head towards the bench where I was sitting, and let a single bubble rise out of the wet sand before the next wave took it.

I don't know what that meant, and I've decided I'm not going to ask anyone. Come home when you can. Your room is still yours, and the bench still has your initials tucked in among the spirals.