Black and grey tattoo of a dove in flight with swirls and the word Faith in script, placed on the top of a foot near the ankle.

Dove and Faith script on a foot

Lettering · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A white dove with shaded grey wings flies to the left, with black linework scrolls rising above it and a long black ribbon swash curling up from the foot. The word Faith is written in flowing script beneath the bird, with soft grey shading giving the bird and lettering depth. The tattoo is set on pale skin against a dark background, with the composition centred on the bird and text.

Lettering Ankle Dove Bird Faith Script Swirl Scroll Wing Ribbon

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit closer, you lot, and mind the brazier, because this one is about a bird and the bird does not care for draughts. Brother Osric kept the bell-tower at Cold Hallow in the year the Ouse rose over the causeway and never went down again. The abbot had a letter to send to the bishop at Ely, and the only creature left that could cross the water was a white dove that roosted in the rafters of the scriptorium.

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Now, the letter was short. It said a single word, and the word was Faith, and the abbot wrote it nine times on the vellum because he did not trust the first eight to arrive. Osric tied the scroll to the dove's leg with a strip torn from his own habit, and the dove looked at him the way a sensible bird looks at a fool, and then it went out over the grey water with its wings held wide.

Well. The dove flew one hour, then two. The bell rang for vespers, and the monks sang without it. Brother Osric climbed the tower every evening after that and stood with his cold hands on the parapet, watching for a speck against the sky. He told himself the bird had found a hedge and a warm loft. He told himself many things.

On the ninth evening a white shape came low over the reeds, wings gone grey with rain, and landed on the sill beside him. The scroll was gone from its leg. In its place was a single feather and a reply folded so small it would fit under a thumbnail: Received. Come down and eat. Osric laughed until he coughed, and the dove, insulted, flew off to find its supper in the nave.