Neo-traditional colour tattoo on the inner forearm showing two songbirds with red breasts, yellow flowers, dark leaves and pink roses.

Birds and roses on an inner forearm

Neo-trad · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Two songbirds with red-shaded breasts sit among black fern-like tail feathers, leaves and a branch. Yellow flowers and pink rose outlines fill the spaces between them. The birds are softly shaded with grey and red, while the flowers and roses are bold, flat colour with fine linework.

Neo-trad Botanical Forearm Bird Songbird Rose Flower Leaf Branch Fern

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The cage had hung from the rowan since before the ceremony, and the two robins inside had not sung once. Tomas stood beneath it with a cup of cider going warm in his hand, listening to the fiddlers tune up on the barn step and watching the birds turn their heads from side to side, as if counting the guests.

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Everyone in Hollin Vale knew the custom. A pair of robins brought to a wedding would sing for the couple if the marriage was to hold, and would stay quiet if it was not. Old Ada Winch had wagered a shilling against it, and the whole yard had taken her bet. Pink roses from the cottage wall were pinned to every coat, and yellow flowers pulled from the verge by the gate stood in jugs along the trestles, their black middles bright as buttons.

The meal went on through the mutton and the apple tart. The bride, Nell, kept glancing at the cage, and Tomas kept glancing at her. When the plates were cleared, her brother Will climbed up and undid the little door, saying it was cruel to keep creatures shut up at a party. The birds went out over the hedge in a rush of grey and rust. They did not sing. They settled on the rose bush, and then one of them flew to the table and perched on the edge of the bride's bouquet, lifting its wings so the dark tail feathers spread out like ferns.

Ada paid her shilling to Will with a grumble. Nell lifted the cage, found it empty, and laughed until she had to sit down on the step. Tomas later found a single black feather tucked into his buttonhole, and he kept it in his waistcoat for the rest of his life.