Black and grey traditional tattoo of a bird-headed figure in a suit holding a sword, inside an oval frame with scrollwork, on an upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bird-headed figure with sword in oval frame

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A bird-headed figure in a dark suit stands on a small stool and holds a sword out to one side, set inside an oval frame. Ornate scrollwork sits at the top of the oval and a row of dots runs along the bottom. The work uses bold outlines with fine hatched shading in black and grey, and the design is centred on the arm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Dot,

Keep reading

The fair pulled into Harrowgate on Tuesday, and the Magistrate has been sulking since we unloaded him. You remember the crow-headed fellow in the black frock coat, the one Father carved from a lime-wood block and dressed in his own funeral suit? He sits on that three-legged stool like a judge who has lost his court, and the sword in his right hand has never once been drawn. Mrs Okonedo at the coconut shy swears the thing hums when the generator starts. I told her the generator hums, not the sword.

Last night a lad of about nine came to the booth with tuppence in his fist and asked the Magistrate whether his dog would come home. Nobody had ever asked him that before. I didn't know what to say, so I said the sword decides. The boy stared at the blade for a long time, then ran off into the rain without his change. The dog turned up this morning under the dodgems, wet and furious and perfectly well.

I'm writing because the owners want him sold at the end of the season. They say the frame is worth more than the wood. I told them the oval painted round him is the only part of the booth that was ever straight. So I'm keeping him, and he'll come with us to Skegness in May. If you want to see the sword finally leave its scabbard, come and stand in front of him with a question you can't ask anyone else.

Love, Walt

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