Black ink tattoo of a triple moon design with a central robed figure inside a circle, placed across the lower back above black waistband clothing.

Triple moon and figure on the lower back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A black linework tattoo across the lower back shows three crescent moons arranged in a row, with a robed female figure with flowing hair standing in front of a large circle at the centre. The lines are solid and uniform, with some hatched shading in the folds of the figure's dress and the moon edges. The design is in black ink only and sits centrally on the lower back against warm skin and a dark waistband.

Back Moon Crescent moon Figure Circle Robe

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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I should have written from Coober Pedy, but the road out here eats the days and leaves only the bones of them. You asked whether I'd found the shrine the driver told us about. I have. It is nothing grand: a cairn of white stones at the bend where the bitumen gives out, and above it a sheet of tin nailed to a post. Someone has painted three crescent moons on the tin, one waxing, one full, one waning, and between them a woman in a long robe standing in front of the round moon. Her hair goes up like a fountain or a fire. I still can't decide which.

Mr Pell stopped the coach so we could stretch our legs, and an old fellow came out of a tin shack with a jerrycan of water and poured a little over the stones before he would say a word to us. He told me the painting was done by his wife, who used to drive the mail run before her hip went. She said the three moons were for the three ways a woman gets to be looked at by the road: young, full, and finished. I asked which one she was when she painted it. He laughed and said she was the one holding the paintbrush, which I thought was the best answer anyone has given me all year.

We reached Marree after dark. The sky was so crowded with stars that the moon, when it finally came up, looked like it had been borrowed from someone else. I thought of you and of the bottle of cordial you said you'd keep cold for me. I'm sorry I took so long to say so.

I'm leaving the bus at the next stop and walking back to the shrine tomorrow to leave a stone of my own. I'll post this when I find a box that is still open.

Love, Jo