Two black and grey tattoos on forearms: an arrow with the script words Her Guardian on the left, and feathered wings with script lettering between them on the right.

Arrow and wings tattoos on two forearms

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The image shows two forearms side by side, each carrying a black and grey tattoo. On the left, a feathered arrow runs diagonally down the arm with flowing script lettering along its shaft. On the right, a pair of shaded feathered wings spreads across the forearm with script wording set between them. The linework is crisp and the grey shading gives the feathers depth against pale skin.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit closer, the fire wants feeding and so do you. No, the peat's on the left. That's it. Now, you'll have heard of the Ferris girl who went out to Ceann Mhor the winter the Lady Isobel went down, and you'll have heard it wrong, because everyone does.

Keep reading

Mairi Ferris was the one who stayed. Her brother Calum was the one who sailed. He had a boat called the Heron and a temper like wet flint, and when the squall came off the Minch he took her out past the skerries to fetch the Mackinnon boys home. Mairi stood on the shingle with her father's old bow, because the rope gun had jammed in the wet, and she shot a line over the rocks. The arrow went where she looked. Not where she aimed, mind. Where she looked. Anyone who has hunted knows the difference.

Calum caught the line. Four men came in on it. Calum did not, and the sea took the Heron the way it takes everything, without asking. Mairi still had the bow in her hand when the tide turned, and the feathers on the spent shaft were soaked through, and she sat down on the stones and said she would not be the one who only held the bow.

Her guardian, the old women say, was the thing that came over the water after her: a pair of grey wings folded on the swell. They did not lift her. They only stood between her and the weather all that winter, and when she finally went to the mainland she carried the arrow in her coat. Whether that is true, I could not tell you. But the Mackinnon boys are grandfathers now, and every one of them will tell you the line came in first.

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