Two forearm tattoos of birds set within geometric line frames, one with a diamond and teal circle, the other with concentric rings and a starburst, on a person in a grey t-shirt.

Birds in geometric frames on both forearms

Geometric · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

The left forearm shows a bird in profile inside a diamond outline, with vertical hatched lines and a teal circle behind it. The right forearm shows a bird within concentric curved lines, with radiating black rays and a teal circle beside it. Fine black linework and stippled shading are combined with soft teal and peach wash, and the two arms are shown side by side in a close, centred crop.

Geometric Fine line Forearm Bird Diamond Circle Line Starburst Sunburst

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas, the two wrens came back to the net loft on Tuesday, the same pair that nested under the slipway last spring. Mr Aske says a wren that returns in March means the mackerel will run early, but he has said that every year since the war and he still owes me a shilling on it. Your boat is due in on the Thursday tide if the wind backs northerly, so I have been up at the lookout most mornings with Father's brass glass.

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Yesterday I watched the fleet come round the point in a line so straight it looked ruled. Forty-one boats, I counted twice. The sun broke through behind them and the water went the colour of Aunt Bet's teal jug, and the spray off the bows was thrown up in long fans, like the rays Mr Aske paints on the chapel door. I thought of you standing at the bow with the wheel rope in your fist, squinting into all that light, and I wanted to wave though you could not possibly have seen me.

Enclosed is the drawing. I took it from the sill of the loft: one wren inside a diamond with the rain lines running down behind, the other inside rings like the ripples a stone makes in the harbour. Mr Aske says they are the same bird twice, one for the going and one for the coming back. I told him he was being soft. He said the sea is soft until it is not, and then he went off to fetch the tar.

Come home with the catch and your wages. Bring the coat with the torn cuff and I will sew it while you tell me about the Faroe grounds. Do not stay out past the spring tide. The wrens are watching the sky for you, and so am I.