Black and grey angel wings with detailed feather linework cover the upper back of a bare-backed person, with the head partly visible at the top of the frame.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Angel wings across the upper back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A bare back and shoulders are shown from behind, with the head cropped at the top and no face visible. A large pair of angel wings covers the upper back, drawn in black feather outlines with soft grey shading across the plumes. The image has a plain blurred background of grass and sky, which keeps the focus on the tattoo.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the wings went up on the lych-gate angel on Saturday, the morning of Nell Hadley's wedding, and I have been meaning to tell you since, only the post van keeps arriving before I've finished a sentence. Mr Ainsley the monumental mason did the stone work, but it was me who sat three evenings with the grey wash and the fine brush, shading each plume so the light would sit in the grooves the way it does on a real bird.

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You'll remember the angel was a faceless thing, worn to a lump by a hundred Yorkshire winters. Nobody thought the wings would take. Mr Ainsley wanted to cut them back flat, but the vicar said the bride's mother had asked for them, so I went at the stone with a pencil first, drawing the long primaries down the wall to where it meets the path, then outlining every feather in black so the pattern would hold from the lane.

On the day, the bride walked under them without looking up. Nell's little brother stood on the bench to get a proper look and announced that the angel had got its coat back. I told him the coat was the wrong colour, and he told me angels are allowed to choose their own colours, and I could not think of a thing to say against that.

Write when you can. The kettle is on and the lane smells of cut grass. Your loving sister, Ida

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