Black and red abstract bird tattoo with dotwork and a geometric lattice across the shoulder and upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Abstract bird and geometric pattern on upper arm

Blackwork · Shoulder · Mixed · Photo

A large tattoo covers the shoulder and upper arm, showing a bold black brushstroke bird-like form that fades into fine dots spreading over the shoulder. Below, a geometric lattice pattern and loose red splashes sit on the upper arm, with the linework and solid black areas contrasting against the bare skin. The composition wraps around the arm, with the dark background making the ink stand out.

Blackwork Dotwork Shoulder Upper arm Bird Geometric pattern Brushstroke Dot Lattice Splash

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit yourselves down and mind the teapot, it's been stewing since the lifeboat came in. You'll want the one about the Halloran sisters' net loft, because it's the one that gets told at this table and nowhere else.

Keep reading

Old Ada Halloran mended nets for the fleet, and in the winter of the big blow she found a black swift dead on the lattice of her drying frames, its wing folded like a shut fan. She meant to bury it. Instead she sat with it by the stove all night, and somewhere past three the bird turned its head and looked at her as if she owed it rent.

It did not fly away. It came apart. By morning there was no bird, only a scatter of small dark dots across the floorboards, and every one of them was lifting like seed off a thistle. They rose through the skylight in a spiral that tightened and loosened, drawing the mesh of the nets up after them, until the whole loft was threaded like a cat's cradle of salt light.

Ada copied the pattern onto the back of a tide table. Her sister said it was only the storm. Ada said the storm had nothing to do with it, and that the swift had simply wanted someone to count the pieces properly. Go on up to bed now, all of you. If you can't sleep, count the dots on the ceiling. Most people get to nineteen and give up.