Fine line black tattoo of a stylised owl perched on a thin branch with leaves, on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Fine line owl on a branch on the upper arm

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A small stylised owl sits above a thin branch with two leaves at each end, drawn in black ink. The body is built from hatched and cross-hatched lines, with a solid black shape for the wing and a lighter outline for the head. The tattoo is centred on pale skin, with a black and white patterned fabric filling the left side of the frame.

Fine line Upper arm Owl Branch Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz, the wind has sat in the north since Tuesday and Mrs Pryce says the Halcyon will be late in, so I am writing this at the kitchen table with the lamp turned low so I can see the harbour when I look up. You asked in your last letter whether the owl was still on the net loft wall. It is. Your father cut it from a length of ash that came ashore after the big storm, scratching the lines in with a bent nail because he said feathers were only lines that had agreed to stay together.

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The branch runs along the bottom of the board with two leaves at each end, and every morning the owl looks down it at the slipway as though it is waiting for someone to bring the boats in. Last month young Davey Bran went up the ladder with a pot of white paint, meaning to freshen the timbers, and he covered the black wing with one long pale stroke before anyone could stop him. I was so angry I could not speak for an hour. Then I found the old ink in your father's tin and sat on the loft floor with a brush until the wing was dark again.

The Halcyon came round the point at dusk yesterday with her sails patched and her crew soaked to the skin, and I counted them off the quay twice to be sure. Then I climbed the ladder and set the lamp in the hollow of the owl's breast, where your father always said a bird should keep its warmth. It burns there now, and I think it will do until you come home.