Black linework dreamcatcher with teal feathers tattooed on the side of the ribs, with light denim jeans worn below.

Dreamcatcher and feathers on the ribs

Ribs · Mixed · Photo

A torso photograph showing several dreamcatcher designs with fine black outlines and web patterns, stacked diagonally down the side. Teal and green feathers with shaded detail hang from the hoops and drift across the skin. The subject is cropped at the waist and wears light denim, with a plain teal background.

Ribs Dreamcatcher Feather Web Hoop

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the dreamcatchers Mr Okafor sold us at the Harvest Fair have stopped working, or else I have stopped sleeping properly, and I cannot decide which is worse. I hung the big one over the bed the night after you left, the one with the seven hoops that looks like a spider's wheel, and still I lie awake listening to the milk lorry grind up Chapel Hill at four.

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Yesterday I took the little ones down from the wardrobe door and went out to the allotment with them in my apron pocket. Mrs Pryce was burning bean sticks by the gate and asked what I was doing with the feathers, so I told her the truth, that I was letting the good dreams go where they liked. She laughed at me, but she came and watched. The green ones caught on the wind and went over the hedge toward the reservoir, three of them, turning like they knew the way.

The last hoop I kept. It sits on the sill now, threaded with one feather I could not bring myself to lose, a teal one with a shadow down its spine. I have decided it is for you to catch the nightmares on the train, since you always did sleep with your mouth open. Write when you reach Leeds. Tell me if the feather stays put.

Your loving sister, Ruth