Shirtless man lying in bed with his face hidden by his hands, showing a black and grey bird and ornamental tattoo on his forearm and a dark tree line tattoo on his upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bird and forest tattoos on arms

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A shirtless man lies on rumpled bedding with both hands pressed over his face, so his face is not visible. His forearm carries a detailed black and grey tattoo of a bird with swirling ornamental shapes, and his upper arm has a dark band of pine trees in solid black ink. The image is in muted tones, with soft shadows and grey linen dominating the composition.

Blackwork Botanical Forearm Upper arm Bird Wing Tree Forest Ornamental Swirl

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The bird came back to the canopy over platform two again this morning, the one with its feathers worked out like the curls on a fairground organ. Mr Pollard swears it is a jay, but jays don't sit still long enough for a man to count their tail feathers, and this one stayed put through the whole of the 7.12 to Carlisle while the steam hissed and the porters shouted about the wet.

I have kept the left-luggage ticket you left on the hook by the kettle. Forty-one pounds you owe me in dust, I reckon. A green trunk, two brown cases and a parcel tied in oilcloth that nobody has asked after since March. Every Thursday I shift it an inch so it doesn't look forgotten, which is daft, I know.

The forest up past the cutting is nothing but pines now. The Forestry men have marked the whole ridge with white paint, and when the wind is right you can smell resin on the platform. The woman from the tearoom says it means rain. I told her it means your boots are drying somewhere up there without you.

The trunk's label says Sheffield, but nobody has come for it. Yesterday I finally opened the parcel. Inside was a folded map of the ridge, every track inked in, and one feather the length of my hand. I've put it back where it was. Come down on the next train and fetch it yourself, or I will post the feather to you with a bill for storage.

Love, Nell