Enlarged with AI from a smaller original
Two arrows on the side ribs
Fine line · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo
A small black tattoo of two arrows with feathered tails and arrowheads sits on the side of the ribcage, under the arm. The linework is thin and solid with no visible shading, and the design is shown in black ink only against warm skin. The photo is a two-panel mirror shot, with the tattoo in the left panel and a grey tank top and bedroom background around it.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
The bowstring has left a red line across your fingertips, and the old man at the far end of the allotment has stopped pretending not to watch. You nock an arrow, draw to your cheek the way he showed you, and let it go into the straw bales. It lands a hand's width left of the gold paper circle. He says nothing, only lifts a second arrow from the quiver and holds it out, fletching first, the feathers the colour of wet sparrows.
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Two, he says. Always two in a garden. The first is for the thing you mean to hit. The second is for the thing you didn't plan on, because something always wanders across the lawn once you've let go. You assume he means the pigeons or the neighbour's cat, and you say so, and he laughs in the wheezing way that means you're right but he won't explain.
So you shoot again, and the bow feels heavier than it did an hour ago. The arrow goes wide, then drops short, and the hedge rustles and the boy from number nine comes through it with his arms full of runner beans, grinning as if he has been waiting all summer to be hit by something. You lower the bow. The old man is already walking towards the shed, and the second arrow is still in your hand, warm from your grip, and you understand he never told you which of the two was the mistake.
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