Black line drawing of a dove in flight on a white background, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement visible.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dove in flight line drawing

Black and grey · Flash

A stylised dove is drawn in flight, facing left, using smooth, continuous black strokes of varying thickness. The outline forms the wings, tail and head with minimal interior detail, leaving the white background open. The image is a monochrome design with no shading or colour.

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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

Mrs Ada Hollis had painted lettering on the sides of fishing boats for thirty-one years, and in all that time she had never once lifted the brush before a stroke was finished. Her master, Mr Penrose, used to say it was showing off. She said it was the only honest way to make a line, because any join betrayed where your nerve had wavered.

Keep reading

The commission came in March from the chapel at Staithes, a sign for the new hall with a dove on it, a single bird going out over the harbour wall. The minister wanted it simple. Ada brought her sable brush down to the board at dawn, when the tide was turning and the gulls were still asleep on the slipway, and she thought of nothing but the beak, the lift of the wing, and the way the tail tapered to a point like a dropped pin.

She got it on the third morning. The stroke ran from the crown of the head, down the breast, round under the wing and off the edge of the board without a tremor. Her hand shook afterwards, though not from fear. When the minister came to collect it he stood a long time in front of the board, then asked where the bird was going.

Ada wiped the brush on her apron and looked out at the water. "Wherever the line says," she told him.

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