Black fine line tattoo of two chemical structure diagrams on the calf, one above the other, shown in a black and white photo.

Two molecule diagrams on a calf

Fine line · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a lower leg showing two chemical structure diagrams tattooed in thin black lines, one above the other. The upper structure has a benzene ring with two hydroxyl groups and an ethylamine side chain, and the lower one has a fused ring system with a hydroxyl group and an NH nitrogen. The linework is even and uncomplicated, with no shading, and the composition sits centrally on the calf against a dim indoor background.

Fine line Calf Chemical structure Molecule Leg

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Win,

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The 6.14 has been cancelled again, so I am writing this on the bench under the clock with the lost property box at my feet. Someone left a notebook on the 4.50 last Tuesday, and I finally opened it. Most of it is sums for the night school, but on the last page there are two drawings in fountain pen, one above the other. Little hexagons with HO written off the corners, a chain of dashes ending in NH2, and below it a crooked house with a ring of five-sided rooms. Under them, in careful capitals: DOPAMINE. SEROTONIN. DO NOT CONFUSE.

I asked Mr Pryce at the ticket office, since he has been here longer than the clock. He said the notebook belongs to Dr Halloran, who taught chemistry at the Mechanics' Institute until his chest gave out. Every Thursday, he said, Halloran sat on this bench with a cup of tea and told anyone who would listen that the two little molecules were like the two platforms here. One sends you off up the line, all hurry and wanting. The other keeps you sitting still long enough to watch the signals change. You need both, he used to say, and the trick is knowing which one is shouting.

I have decided to take the notebook to the address on the flyleaf, a terrace on Ferens Street, number nine. It is only four stops, and the next train is in twenty minutes if the wind holds. I will tell you how it goes. Before I leave I am copying the two shapes onto the back of the timetable, so that whoever sits on this bench next has something to puzzle over while they wait.

Love, Edie