Two fine line black tattoos on ankles: a small wave on the left ankle and a simple shell outline on the right, with jeans rolled above black socks.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Wave and shell ankle tattoos

Fine line · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

Two small tattoos sit on the inner ankles of two people, one showing a simple wave and the other an outlined scallop shell. The linework is thin and uniform in black ink, with no shading or colour. The photo is taken close up against a silver foil backdrop, with the rolled denim and socks framing the two designs.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The lamp at Skerrow Point went dark on Tuesday, and Mam says the keeper's boy has been sent up from Thurso to fix the mechanism, which means the rest of us get to watch him walk the cliff path with a toolbox like a man in a hymn. I'm writing because you asked whether the wave and shell still hang on the nail in the boathouse. They do. I took them down last week to scrape the salt off.

Remember the summer we went to the rock pools below the light and you found a scallop with both its valves still shut, and insisted it was keeping a secret? You wanted to take it home, and I said the sea would only come looking for it. We had the designs done that same week, and on the slipway afterwards we swore the wave would always be the one that bent towards the shell. Silly, but I meant it.

A bell rang twice in the fog this morning, and I stood at the window counting the gap between the beam and the sound, the way we used to. Nothing came back. The lighthouse is only a light, Nell. It doesn't know who is out there, so I keep counting for both of us.

Come home at Christmas if the trains behave. Bring the shell. I'll bring the wave, and we can see whether the tide still runs the way we drew it.

Love, Isla

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