Black ink tree with bare branches and small birds flying up towards the shoulder, with a line of small script beside the trunk, on a woman's upper back.

Bare tree and birds on a upper back

Botanical · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A woman with her hair pinned up is seen from behind, showing a large black tattoo of a bare tree across her upper back. A flock of small birds rises from the branches towards the neck and shoulder, and a few lines of small script sit beside the trunk. The tattoo is done in black ink with fine shading on the trunk and branches, and the soft background is in muted tones.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Hal,

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You will not believe the state of Harrowgate this autumn. The west tower has finally given up its last stone, and the ash that grew through the chapel floor has dropped every leaf onto the flagstones, so the whole nave is bare as a ploughed field. Mrs Pell swears the tree has been waiting for the roof to go. I told her trees do not wait for anything, but I have started to wonder.

Last Tuesday I sat under it with my sketchbook and drew the branches until the light went. When I looked up, a flock of starlings had settled along the limbs like loose stitching. I clapped my hands to shoo them, and the whole crowd lifted at once, spilling out through the broken arch towards the moor. The branches looked lighter for it, as if they had been holding their breath all summer.

I copied out the words the old steward scratched into the bark beside the trunk, the ones nobody can read without the sun behind them: Leave the door open for what comes back. I have pinned the page above my bed. Come up at Christmas if the roads hold, and bring your good pencils. I want you to see the birds go, once, before the masons arrive and put a roof on everything.

Yours in haste, Nell

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