Black and grey Celtic knotwork tattoo on the upper arm, with hooded figures, birds and a cat among spiralling vines.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Celtic knotwork vine on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large black and grey tattoo wraps down the upper arm, built from spiralling vines and interlaced knotwork. Hooded figures, a bird perched on the vine, a second bird in flight and a cat sit within the scrollwork. The shading is smooth and detailed, with soft grey tones giving the figures depth against the pale skin, and the photograph is taken against a plain lilac wall.

Upper arm Celtic knot Vine Spiral Hooded figure Bird Crow Cat

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Win,

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I have not slept since Saturday, and I want you to hear it from me before your mother gets the gossip from the Wrights. The Harvest Hop at the Assembly Rooms went on till three, and I danced most of it with the girl in the grey hood, who never once lifted her face. Her two sisters stood by the ferns the whole night like pieces of a carved door. Nobody could say where they came from, only that they paid their shilling at the stairs and kept their gloves on.

Something followed them in. A crow sat on the balcony rail and watched the waltz turn, and when the band struck up the Pride of Erin it dropped down and walked the floor between our feet as if it had paid too. The black cat from the bakery came in after it, bold as brass, and sat under the piano where the bass drum could not find it. When I asked the girl whose cat it was she smiled and said, 'The vine's, and the vine is never finished.' Then she tied her hood tighter and walked out into the rain with her sisters, and the crow went after them.

I went down the lane this morning. There is only the old hawthorn and a coil of bramble that has grown over the wall in the shape of a spiral, and in the thorns three crows were sitting very still. I left a ticket stub on the wall. Come home at Easter, Win, and bring your dancing shoes. I have a feeling the band will be asked back.