Black and grey sleeve tattoo on a man's arm, showing a bird in flight, a feather and flowers in a Botanical and Traditional style, running from the upper arm to the forearm.

Bird, feather and flower sleeve on an arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a bird with outstretched wings near the upper arm, a large feather running down the forearm, and flowers and foliage filling the gaps. The linework is dark and defined, with soft grey shading on the feather and wings. The ink is almost entirely black and grey, and the arm is held in the foreground while a person in a light floral dress sits close behind.

Find an artist for this

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

The post road over Scar Gap had no inn for nine miles, so when the snow came early that October, Tomas Rhee left his mule at the cairn and went up on foot with a lantern and a loaf wrapped in cloth. He had promised his sister he would be back by dark. The wind laid the flame flat and he kept walking anyway, counting the marker stones the way his grandmother had taught him.

Keep reading

A kestrel came down out of the cloud with its wings held wide and dropped a feather at his boots. It lay across the path and pointed uphill. The old people in the valley said the kestrel carried the mountain's messages, and that a man given a feather must follow it or pay for his refusal with years. Tomas followed it through the drifts, past a clump of late crocus pushing up through the snow, which had no business being there at that height, until the feather stood upright on the step of a shepherd's hut.

Inside, a boy of about ten lay on a heap of sacks with a leg that bent the wrong way below the knee. He had been crying for the bird to come back, he said, because the bird always knew the way down. Tomas set the bone as best he could, tore the bread for them both, and sat with the boy until the lantern guttered out and the grey light came up over the pass. They went down together, slowly, with the kestrel wheeling ahead of them and calling at every bend.

Every October after that, Tomas's sister pinned the feather to the wall above her stove and wrote the date beside it in ink on the plaster. The boy grew up to drive the post mule over the Gap, and the kestrel still came down to the cairn each autumn to look at the path, as though it were checking that the road had been kept.

More like this

Two people holding hands, each with a small, delicate black fine line symbol tattooed on the wrist.
Matching small symbol tattoos on wrists
Small black swallow and star tattoos on two people's hands and wrists as they hold hands outdoors, with a dark tattoo visible on a forearm.
Swallow and star tattoos on joined hands
Close-up of a woman's neck showing a small fine line black butterfly tattoo with thin antennae, placed on the side of the neck below the ear.
Small butterfly tattoo on the neck
Black and grey geometric mandala tattoo on a calf, with a person in dark denim lacing a brown leather boot outdoors.
Mandala tattoo on a calf above brown boots
Close view of a traditional style skull and rose tattoo with green leaves on the forearm of a person in a white lace robe, hands clasped.
Skull and rose on a forearm
A man's upper arm, with a black and grey tattoo of a circular symbol, rests around a woman with long blonde hair while they sit in a vintage truck.
Couple in a vintage truck with an arm tattoo
Black and grey sleeve tattoo on a woman's arm showing butterflies, a small anchor, lace-like ornament and large flowers, from upper arm to forearm.
Butterflies, anchor and florals on a full sleeve
Two people hold hands, each with a matching fine line 'always' script tattoo with a small triangle, circle and line motif on the inner wrist.
Matching 'always' wrist tattoos
Dark blue geometric mandala tattoo with pink accents on the upper thigh of a person lying on a patchwork quilt.
Blue mandala tattoo on a thigh
Close up of a small black fine line pine tree tattoo on the inner forearm of a woman in a plaid shirt with long blonde hair.
Small pine tree on a forearm
Black fine-line fern sprig tattoo curving across the upper arm of a woman with long hair seated on a white bed.
Fern sprig on upper arm
Traditional colour tattoo of hot air balloons decorated with floral patterns and pink flowers on the upper leg of a person seated in a car.
Hot air balloons and flowers on a thigh

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.