Black ink brushstroke raven perched on a branch across a man's upper back, with a small symbol tattoo on his neck.

Brushstroke raven on a branch across the back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large raven sits on a diagonal branch on the upper back, drawn with loose, gestural black strokes and splatter dots. The bird is rendered in dense black and grey with bare skin showing through the gaps, and a sharp beak faces left. A yellow rectangle behind the upper part of the bird is a graphic overlay rather than ink, and a small symbol tattoo sits on the neck above.

Back Neck Raven Bird Branch Brushstroke Ink splatter Dot Symbol

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 bird had been sitting on the flat roof outside Ward 7 since the start of my shift, a black smudge against the sodium orange of the car park. Nobody else on nights seemed to notice it. Mrs Okonedo in bed four said ravens were bad news, but she said that about the hoover too.

Keep reading

At half two the lift stuck between floors and I spent forty minutes on the stairwell phone with Dev from estates, who kept promising he'd send someone. I went back up with a cup of tea gone cold and found the bird had moved. It was on the rail of the window in the day room now, turned side on, beak pointing at the drip stand as if it had opinions about the saline.

Bed nine's son was in the chair beside his father, asleep with his mouth open. The old man was awake, watching the window. 'Thinks he's the one come to take me,' he said, and laughed, and the laugh turned into a cough that went on too long. I pressed the buzzer and held his hand while the registrar came running. When I looked back the rail was empty, only a few grey specks on the sill, as if someone had flicked ink off a loaded brush.

At seven the sky went the colour of weak milk. Bed nine was still breathing, slowly, and his son woke holding his coat. I walked past the day room and the sill was clean. There was just one dark feather on the lino. I left it where it lay, because the cleaners would only sweep it up, and I'd rather somebody else decided what it meant.