Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Child profile in a feathered headdress

Black and grey · Flash

A detailed pencil drawing shows a child's face in profile, looking left, wearing a tall headdress of layered feathers with a fur-like trim. The headdress has a geometric beaded band across the forehead and a star medallion with hanging feather tassels near the ear. Shading is done in fine graded pencil lines, and the whole piece is in greys on white with a plain background.

Child Profile Headdress Feather Star Medallion Geometric pattern

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

Dear Maureen, the headdress came back from the primary school on the hill today, shoved into a pillowcase and smelling of squash and the gym hall. Forty-one feathers were snapped at the quill, two had gone altogether, and the fur trim had been used to mop up something orange. I have been at it since nine with a pot of fish glue, a box of fine nibs from the man on the Stokes Croft market stall, and a tin of tea that has long since gone cold.

Keep reading

The beadwork is what gets me. Someone sat with a needle and sewed that band across the forehead one bead at a time, the diamonds stepping up and then back down like a sum you have to follow with your finger. I counted the rows twice before I dared lift a single loose bead. The star on the medallion is still in one piece, eight points, the thread gone the colour of weak tea. I did not touch it without the good tweezers, and I did not breathe very much either.

The teacher rang at four to ask whether the star could be left as it was, scuffs and all, because that was how it looked at rehearsal and everyone liked it that way. I said I would see what I could do, and then I said yes, because some things should not be made to look new.

I have left one grey quill on the edge of the bench where the window light falls, so the mended feathers can be compared with it. Pencil shading never looks quite the same up close as it does from across the room, and I think the same is true of a repair. Come for tea on Sunday and bring the good scissors. Love, Pat.