True love in Chinese characters
Black and grey · Flash
The design shows the words TRUE LOVE in small capitals at the top, the Chinese characters 真愛 in large black brush-style strokes in the centre, and the line pronunciation: jen ai at the bottom. The linework is solid black on a plain white background, with no shading or colour. The layout is centred and symmetrical, with the characters given the most visual weight.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Mei Ling, the galley smells of burnt coffee and the cook's bleach, and I am writing this sat on an upturned bucket by the stove because the mess is full of men arguing over the football. The chalk you gave me is still in my top pocket, worn down to a stub. Every night I have been practising the two characters on the back of the ration sheets. The Bosun thinks I have gone soft. Last Tuesday he found me at the scullery sink drawing the first one in the steam on the window with my finger.
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Your uncle showed me on the quay how jen is made: the long straight stroke for a true line, then the little hook at the end like a finger that will not let go. Ai was harder. I got the heart tangled in the middle, and you laughed so hard the fishwife turned round to see what the noise was. I have it right now. Four strokes inside the heart, and a sweep across the top like a roof over the lot.
We sail at dawn, and the chief says we will be three weeks out before any port with a post office. So I will keep this letter in the flour tin until the next land, and if it arrives damp, you will know the rain got it first and not my hand. When I come home I want to brush the pair of them across your gate in black ink, big as a door, so the whole street reads them before they reach the step.
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