Black and grey Neo-trad tattoo of a large-eyed girl with braids and a collar, framed by ornate scrollwork and a bird, on a limb.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Braided girl portrait in an ornate frame

Neo-trad · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A large-eyed girl with two plaited braids and a high collar is drawn in a stylised, illustrative manner. She sits inside an ornate scrolled frame, with a bird perched on the top edge and a birdcage-like lattice behind her. The work uses bold black outlines and grey shading, with no colour, and fills the vertical frame of the photograph.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The starling is still in its cage on the landing, though Mrs Pryce next door has taken to feeding it crusts through the wire. She says it only sings after midnight, when the last tram has rattled off towards Eccles and the gutters go quiet. So I sit up with it now, the two of us awake above the rooftops, and I've stopped going to choir on Thursdays. Mum thinks I'm still there. Don't tell her.

On Tuesday the framer on Chapel Street finally returned Nan's portrait. You'll remember we argued about that frame for a month, the heavy scrolled thing Dad said looked like a funeral wreath. Mr Okafor had wrapped it in brown paper and tied it with the green string he uses for everything. When I pulled the paper away, the old photograph was gone. In its place was a drawing of a girl with two plaits and a stiff high collar, large eyes fixed on me as if I'd come in late for school, and a bird perched on the top edge of the frame, the cage lattice drawn behind her like rain on a window.

I didn't tell Mr Okafor it was wrong. I stood under the shop bell for ages, trying to remember whether Nan ever wore her hair in plaits, and across the yard the starling started up, right on cue.

I think it's her, Tom. I think she's been waiting for someone to notice. Come home and see for yourself, and bring the green string back when you're done with it.

Love, Ruth

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