Black and grey sketch-style blackwork tattoo of a deer, fox and wolf stacked vertically on a forearm, shown from two angles.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Deer, fox and wolf stacked on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A stack of three animal heads runs down the forearm: a deer with large antlers at the top, a fox or similar canine in the middle, and a wolf or bear-like head at the bottom. The linework is loose and sketchy, with fine outlines, crosshatched shading and thin geometric lines crossing behind the heads. The photo is shown as a two-panel pair against a grey brick wall, with only black ink and grey tones in the design.

Blackwork Forearm Deer Antler Fox Wolf Animal Geometric line

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The hard frost came on Tuesday and hasn't let go. Dad has the Aga going from five now and the ewes are in the low field by the hay ring. You'll laugh, but the deer are back. Eleven of them came down through the gap by the beeches on Sunday, and the big stag stood at the gate with his antlers combed out against the hedge as if he owned the place. Mum photographed him on her phone and sent it to the Dolby lad, who says it's the first herd he's seen since the new fencing went up.

The fox is the other thing. She sits on the byre roof every dusk, thin as a coat hanger, watching the hens with her head tilted like she's doing sums. Dad says leave her be, she'll take the rats before the hens. I've started leaving scraps by the water trough and I haven't told him.

On Thursday there were prints in the snow along the hedge, big and splayed, and nothing in the trap in the morning except one grey feather. I haven't told anyone about that part. I think the wolf is a story the old men tell to keep the youngsters indoors after dark. But the prints were real enough. They ran straight from the byre roof to the beeches, the way a shadow follows a lamp.

Come home for the lambing if you can. Bring your sketchbook. You always drew animals better than you lived among them, and I'd like to see what you'd make of all this, the three of them lined up on the gate post like they've agreed on something.

Love, Ruth