Black and grey tattoo of an armoured warrior with a spear beneath a double-headed eagle, with red accents and the word Illyria, on an upper arm.

Armoured warrior and double-headed eagle on upper arm

Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A helmeted warrior holding a spear stands in front of a double-headed eagle with outstretched, feathered wings. The figure is shaded in greys with smooth gradients, and red splashes behind it add colour. The word ILLYRIA runs in bold black lettering along the lower part of the design, which fills the upper arm.

Upper arm Warrior Helmet Spear Wing Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Teuta had the banner across her knees when the wind came off the water, and the thread snapped for the third time that morning. Two black heads looked up at her from the cloth, each beak open towards the other, each wing spread to the edges of the linen. Below the harbour wall the fishing boats knocked against their ropes like impatient dogs.

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Her grandfather had sewn the first one in the winter the customs men came to Vrana, and he had told her the eagle needed two heads because one was never enough to watch both the sea and the mountains. He had carried the spear in the old procession, a shaft of ash with the iron head bound in red cord, and the cord had faded to the colour of weak tea. Teuta could not remember him holding it up without it trembling.

The warrior on the banner had no face, only a helmet with a ridge like a fish's back. Her grandfather said the painter in Shkodër had shaded him in greys so he would look like a man made of smoke and stone, something that would survive the fire. Teuta thought he looked tired. She pulled the needle through, pricked her thumb, and let the blood bloom on the linen beside his shield, where it looked, in the late sun, like the splash of a red sail.

By dusk the banner was mended and hung from the harbour office window. Nobody asked who had stitched it. The boats came in low and heavy, and the fishermen touched their caps as the cloth moved above them, two heads turning, one towards the land and one towards the sea. Teuta walked home with her thumb wrapped in a rag and the taste of iron in her mouth.