Vertical black brush calligraphy of stacked Japanese-style characters on a white background, shown as a tattoo design with no body visible.

Vertical brush calligraphy design

Japanese · Black and grey · Flash

A column of bold, black brush-stroke characters runs from top to bottom of the image, each character built from thick and thin strokes with tapering ends. Several long diagonal strokes extend to the left and right, adding movement to the column. The image is pure black ink on white with no shading or colour, and the design fills the frame with even margins.

Japanese Lettering Calligraphy Character Brush stroke Ink

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas, I have put your brush back in the tin where you left it, bristles stiff now from the sea air that gets into everything in this town. Mr Abernethy came down from the harbour office on Tuesday wanting the column repainted before the summer lets. He wants the same eight characters as on the boarding house sign, the ones your grandfather copied from a fishing crate he found washed up off Skerry Point.

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I told him the characters were not his to choose. Each stroke has to start heavy and lift away, and you have to load the brush until the ink runs black and then let it thin like a wave going out. I did the first three columns myself while the tide was low. The fine strokes come out ragged when your hand shakes, so I waited until the kettle had gone cold and the gulls had quieted before I touched the brush.

On the last character, the one that looks like a lotus lying on water, the brush would not lift. Ink pooled at the tail and I had to lay it down twice. Mrs Penhallow from number four came out in her dressing gown to watch and said it looked like a boat leaving harbour. I think she was right, though I did not say so.

Abernethy paid me in cash and two dozen eggs. The sign is up and dry, and the rain has not touched it yet. Come home at Easter if you can. Bring nothing but yourself, and mind the third stair, it still gives under you.