Solid black crow tattoo with stylised feather scales on the upper arm of a person wearing a white t-shirt.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Black crow on upper arm

Blackwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large crow stands in profile on the upper arm, with its head turned to the left and one foot gripping a branch. The bird is filled with solid black ink, with the wing and body marked by layered scale-like feather patterns left as bold negative shapes. The photograph is taken in a dim studio with the arm raised, showing the tattoo against the pale skin and a white top.

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 crow arrived the week the lamp glass cracked, sitting on the iron rail outside the gallery as if someone had posted it there. I kept a tally of ships in the log that winter, and it kept one too, in its own way. Each dusk it came down from the cliff, turned its head to the west, ink-black against the grey sea, and waited for me to light the wick.

Keep reading

I called him Mr Dunning, after the chandler who owed me eleven shillings and never once looked me in the eye. The bird took bread from my palm and from no one else's. When the fog came in thick on the third of February and the fog bell seized up in the cold, I climbed the stairs with the paraffin and found him on the lantern housing, wings folded flat and layered like the slates on the cottage roof.

He did not leave when I lit the lamp. He hopped along the rail to the driftwood branch I had nailed up for him and stared into the murk where the Ellison boat was overdue from Blyth. I took it for hunger, or superstition, until I heard oars knocking against the rock below and the beam caught a dark hull steering wide of the Scar.

Mrs Ellison came up the steps soaked to the skin and laughed at me for talking to a bird. I told her the crow had kept better watch than I had. She pushed two mackerel into my coat pocket, and the next dusk he was back on the rail, head turned west, waiting for the light.

More like this

Black and grey sketch-style raven with geometric feather shading, perched on a branch on the outer thigh.
Raven perched on a branch on the thigh
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a small songbird with spread wings on the upper arm.
Songbird in flight on upper arm
Black and grey realism tattoo of a small songbird perched on ornate scrollwork on a forearm.
Songbird on scrollwork on a forearm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a songbird standing on a wireframe octahedron, placed on the inner forearm.
Songbird standing on an octahedron on a forearm
Black and grey realism tattoo of a horned owl gripping a pocket watch on the upper arm.
Owl gripping a pocket watch on an arm
Black and grey realistic raven tattoo perched on a branch across the upper arm.
Raven perched on a branch on an upper arm
Black and grey realism raven tattoos on both forearms, with a small fine line fleur-de-lis above the left wrist.
Two raven tattoos on forearms
Black and grey brushstroke tattoo of a small perched bird with a long tail, placed on the lower leg above a black sock.
Small bird on the lower leg
Black and grey realism tattoo of a songbird in flight with outstretched wings, placed on the upper arm.
Songbird in flight on upper arm
Black and grey tattoo of a perched bird, half solid black and half dotted shading, crossed by thin triangle and square lines on a forearm.
Bird with geometric triangles on a forearm
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a soaring bird with fine line geometric circles and dotted arcs on the forearm.
Soaring bird with geometric lines on a forearm
Black lace-patterned bird with blue wing and tail accents, perched on a branch on the inner forearm.
Lace-patterned bird on a forearm

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