Black line drawing of two koi fish swimming in a circle among sakura blossoms and water ripples, a Japanese-style tattoo design with no body placement shown.

Two koi fish with sakura flowers

Japanese · Black and grey · Flash

Two koi fish curve around each other in a yin-yang style arrangement, with scales, fins and whiskers drawn in fine black linework. Five-petalled sakura flowers sit within concentric water ripples across the cream background. The design is shown in black ink only, with no shading or colour.

Japanese Koi Fish Flower Water Scale Line art

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The 6.42 has been cancelled again, so I am writing this on the back of a timetable at the bench beside the pond behind Harrowgate station, the one nobody mentions to tourists. There are two koi in it, one orange and white, one cream with a dark cap, that the stationmaster's late wife paid for in 1978. In forty years they have never once swum apart. Mr Okafor from the signal box says they are married. I told him they were only greedy, because they come straight to my crisps.

The lily pads have gone brown at the edges, and the petals from the cherry tree by the ticket office keep drifting onto the water. Every time one of the fish noses up, rings spread outwards and carry the petals along with them, so the ripples look as if they are wearing little hats. You said at Christmas that I always take the slow route. Maybe so. I have been sitting here long enough to notice that each ring has a flower caught in it when the light hits right. It is probably just the reflection of the tree, but I have decided it is not.

This morning the stationmaster drained the pond to clean it. He lifted the pair of them out in a bucket and carried them past me down the platform, one lying over the other. I saw that they had been pressed together so long that their scales had worn a shallow mark into each other's sides. He tipped them back in and they did not drift apart. They circled once, slowly, and settled nose to tail.

So I am not getting the 6.42. I have texted Dad to say I am staying a while. Come on Sunday if you can. Bring the good tea and leave the tent at home.

Love, Ruth

P.S. The rings are still going out long after the fish have stopped moving.