Black tribal flash design of a turtle with spiral and wave patterns, set along a long curved band, with no body placement shown.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tribal turtle design in a curved band

Blackwork · Black and grey · Flash

A black ink tribal design shows a turtle at the centre, with its shell and flippers filled with spirals, hooks and wave-like bands. The design sweeps diagonally into a tapering curved tail decorated with triangles and smaller spiral motifs. It is drawn in solid black linework on a plain white background, with no shading or colour.

Blackwork Turtle Tribal Spiral Wave Triangle Band

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tam,

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The leatherback came back to the bay again this morning, the big one with the old scars across her back. I stood on the slipway with my boots wet and watched her turn in the swell the way you always said she would, slow and deliberate, as if she were reading the water for something. Mrs Gillies says she has been coming here since before the war, and that the old men called her the pilot, because wherever she goes the herring follow.

I have not told anyone about the note you left under the net float. I read it three times before I understood you were not coming back for the summer, and I have been angry at you for nine days, which is longer than I have been angry at anything since Mam. The boat is still tied where you left her. Ewan offered to take her out for the mackerel, but I said no. She is yours until you say otherwise.

Yesterday the turtle dived beside the old buoy, and when she rose she had shaken loose a long strand of weed that curled off her shell in a spiral, exactly like the carved bands on the prow of your father's skiff. I thought of you then, out past the Skerryvore light, steering by a pattern the sea keeps making for anyone patient enough to watch.

Come home when the nets are full, or don't. But if the fog takes you and you cannot find the rocks, look for the slow grey back on the swell. She knows the way in.

Love, Ishbel