Black and grey shaded angel wings tattoo spanning the upper and mid back, with feathers drawn in a realistic style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Angel wings across a woman's back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A woman seen from behind wears a halter bikini top and has curly dark hair tied up at the nape. Large feathered angel wings cover the back from the shoulder blades down toward the waist, with each feather shaded in grey tones. The photo is in black and white, with the wings filling most of the centre of the frame.

Realism Back Angel wing Wing Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The goose feathers came up from the fen farms in sacks every October, and Brother Ambrose sorted them on the long refectory table by the north window, because north light never lied about colour. Primaries went with primaries. The soft downy ones he set aside for the underlayers, and the grey-barred ones, the few that had come off the wild geese, he kept in a tin box under his bed like something stolen.

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Abbot Hugh wanted the wings for the altar panel of St Etheldreda's. He did not want gold. 'Angels in the fens should look like weather,' he said, 'not like coins.' So I mixed lampblack with rainwater from the butt by the kitchen door and worked from the top row down, each feather a shade darker toward the quill, until the wings lifted off the wood like smoke that had decided to fly.

By the feast of the Holy Cross the panel was nearly finished, all but the last feather on the left wing, which I had left bare. The storm came in off the Wash that night and the bell in the west tower began to swing with nobody on the rope. I found Wystan, the youngest oblate, halfway up the ladder with his hands white on the rungs. He had a brush tucked in his belt that I had not given him. 'It's the last one,' he said. 'You kept it empty so somebody would finish it.'

We sat on the tower floor until the bell stopped, and I let him lay the grey on. His stroke was too heavy and the feather came out looking like a wet hand. I told him it was perfect.