Black and grey dreamcatcher and three feathers tattoo on a woman's lower back, above blue bikini bottoms, on a beach.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Dreamcatcher and feathers on the lower back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A dreamcatcher with a circular hoop, webbed inner lines and beads hangs above three feathers that fan downwards from a cord. The linework is fine and the feathers have soft grey shading, with darker tips. The tattoo sits on the side of the lower back against a blurred beach and sea background.

Back Dreamcatcher Feather Bead

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The dreamcatcher you sent is still swinging on the cabin hook above the stove, and every time we pass under the railway bridge at Hempton it turns to face the water, as if it has heard something downstream. Dad says it's nonsense, but he sleeps better with it there, and if I'm honest, so do I. The beads knock together when the boat rolls, a small sound like someone counting coins in another room.

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The feathers came from a gull that flew straight into the wheelhouse glass off Yarmouth. I stood on the deck with the kettle going cold and thought it was a bad sign, but I kept the three best ones anyway, because you always said nothing should be wasted. They're grey at the base and darker at the tips, like the river after rain. I tied them on the cord the way you showed me, under the hoop, so they hang low and catch whatever wind comes up the cut.

Last night the web caught a moth. In the morning it was still there, wings spread flat against the netting, and I didn't have the heart to shake it loose. I think that's what you meant, that the thing catches the bad dreams and lets the good ones slip through. But the moth wasn't bad. It was only tired, and it had come a long way to end up on our hook.

The man from Ely has offered for the barge, so the cabin will be gone by the autumn. Come home before then and bring your own net. I'll show you where the feathers came from, and we can decide together what goes on the next hook.

Nell