Black and grey shaded world map tattoo on a person's upper chest, with the words it's all worth reaching for written above it.

World map and quote across the chest

Lettering · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey tattoo of a world map covers the centre of the upper chest, with the continents shaded in soft grey tones and their outlines broken into small islands. The phrase it's all worth reaching for sits in a serif script above the map, running across the collarbone area. The skin is lit evenly against a dark background, and the composition is centred on the chest with the shoulder visible at the left edge.

Lettering Chest World map Map Continent Quote Text Globe

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The ladder leans against the old Bramley at the bottom of your uncle's orchard, and late August light comes through the leaves in loose coins. Nell stands below with the bucket on her hip and tells you the top apples are the sweetest because they've had the most sun. That is exactly the sort of thing she says to make you climb. You set one trainer on the third rung and the wood gives a little under you. Below, the grass has gone the colour of old straw where the hens have been scratching all summer.

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Uncle Ray kept an atlas in the potting shed, a hardback with its spine mended in parcel tape. He used to trace coastlines onto brown paper with a carpenter's pencil, and he'd name countries as if he were calling the register. Nell reckons he never got further than Worcester. Last week you found a loose sheet tucked inside the back cover, the whole world drawn freehand with the oceans left blank, and a sum in the margin: Tenbury to Tierra del Fuego, 11,000 miles, back for tea.

You reach. The apple is cold and heavier than you expected, and it twists free with a small clean sound. The ladder shifts and Nell grabs the stile, swearing at you cheerfully. You hold the apple up against the white sky and turn it slowly, and there is a faint bruise on one side shaped a bit like a coastline. You don't tell her. You climb down, drop it in the bucket, and reach for the next one before your nerve goes.