Colour and black ink tattoo on a lower leg showing an open birdcage, birds flying out, pink cherry blossom branches and the words Faith Hope Love in script.

Birdcage and cherry blossom on a calf

Botanical · Calf · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows an open birdcage with its door swung outward, with small black birds flying away from it. Pink cherry blossom branches curl around the lower design, with a small key hanging from a chain, and the words Faith Hope Love are written in black script across the middle. The cage and birds are shaded in black and grey with fine detail, while the blossoms are filled with soft pink, set against bare skin and a wooden floor.

Botanical Lettering Calf Birdcage Bird Cherry blossom Key Heart Script lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nell found the cage on the bedside table at ten past three, its little door hanging open and Mr Okonedo's canary gone. The old man was asleep with one hand flat on the blanket, his breathing slow and even. His daughter had asked the ward to let the bird stay, and Nell had agreed without thinking much about it. Now the cage swung gently on its hook above the sink, as if the air from the vents were pushing it.

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She checked the window catches first, then the corridor, then the stairwell where the porters propped the fire doors. Bethan from the late shift had seen nothing but a flash of yellow near the sluice room. Nell went past the empty day room, where the vending machine hummed its one stubborn note, and found the bird on the sill of the family room, pecking at a sugar sachet someone had dropped beside a paper cup.

She didn't reach for it. She sat on the edge of the vinyl chair and waited, the way her gran had taught her to wait for wasps in the jam pot, until the canary hopped onto her knuckle and sat there trembling. Its feet were cold. She carried it back along the corridor with both hands cupped, past the nurses' station and the dim glow of the monitors.

Mr Okonedo woke as the first grey light came through the blinds. He looked at the empty cage, then at her palms, and smiled as if he had been expecting exactly this. Nell lifted the bird back inside and left the little brass door swinging wide. He reached for the tiny key on its chain and pressed it into her hand. Keep it, he said. Then you'll know where he is.