Colour tattoo of a barn owl perched on a stack of coloured books on the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Barn owl perched on a stack of books

Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A barn owl with a pale heart-shaped face sits on top of a tall stack of books on the upper arm. The owl is shaded softly with blue, cream and orange tones, and the book spines show bright red, green, purple and blue colours with fine detailing. The tattoo is set against plain skin and a black vest top, with the design running down the arm from the shoulder.

Upper arm Shoulder Owl Barn owl Book

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Brother Aldric, you asked in your last letter whether the tithe barn is fit to hold the new copies, and I can tell you it is fit in every way but one. The roof leaks above the north bay, but a barn owl has taken the dry corner of the rafters for her own, and I have not had the heart to move her. She sits on the topmost book of our great stack, the gatherings we bound in red and green and violet calf, and she watches me with a face like a dish of milk.

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The mice have left the vellum alone since she came. Father Hugh says it is a sign, and Father Hugh says a great many things. I say only that she is a better keeper than the cat, who sleeps through every feast and leaves us the mess. At Martinmas I found a blue-bound psalter with a single feather-mark on its fore-edge, and I laughed until the prior sent a boy to ask what the trouble was.

This morning the stack had shifted. The lowest volumes, the ones in blue, had been pushed out from the wall, and a small pellet lay on the page of Luke, folded neat as a letter. I meant to rebuke her. Instead I sat with the ink drying in my horn and picked the bones apart with a pin, which were the bones of a very small mouse, and then I went to fetch the wax to seal the torn corner.

I am sending this with the carter so you will know where the new books are to rest. When you bless the shelves, keep the owl in your prayers, and do not let anyone move the top volume. She has earned her seat more than any of us.