Five small black swallow silhouettes in flight, arranged in a rising line across the inner forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Five swallows in flight on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A close photograph of a forearm carrying five small solid black swallow silhouettes, each in a different wing position, that rise in a diagonal line towards the elbow. The birds are simple filled shapes with no interior shading, and the ink is crisp against the pale skin. The background is softly blurred, with a white sleeve, part of a woman's face and red lipstick visible at the edges of the frame.

Find an artist for this

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

The abbot wants the swallows gone before Lauds, and you are the one he sends up the scriptorium ladder with a bucket of hot water and a scraper, because you are the youngest and the least likely to argue. Brother Tobias has already hung a sheet of waxed linen beneath the eaves to catch the mess, and it is stiff with last summer's droppings. The mud nests are cups of clay stuck under the slates, and five of the birds sit on the gutter watching you with their dark, sharp heads cocked.

Keep reading

You do not scrape. You tell yourself it is the cold that stops your hand, but the truth is the way they lift off together when the ladder wobbles, five black shapes peeling away one after another, each tilting its wings to a different angle as if the sky were a page they were reading. They climb the air in a diagonal line, the way the red ribbon climbs the margin of Brother Tobias's gospel, and then they are gone over the orchard wall towards the coast and the warmer ground beyond it.

When you come down, the abbot is waiting at the foot of the ladder with his hands folded inside his sleeves. He asks whether the nests are cleared. You say they are. It is not quite a lie: the mud is still there, but the birds have gone, and you were the one who let them go. He nods and walks off across the cloister, and you stand in the wet grass until the bell goes for None.

Next April, before the bell, you will find yourself on the same ladder with the bucket in your hand, and you will leave the scraper where it hangs. The first swallow will come up the valley low over the water, and you will watch it climb past the scriptorium roof with four more behind it in a line, and you will not tell anyone why you are smiling.

More like this

Three small black bird silhouettes in flight, tattooed on the inner upper arm.
Three birds in flight on the inner arm
Small black silhouette tattoo of a flock of birds on a woman's upper back, with her hair pulled up and her face turned away from the camera.
Flock of birds on upper back
Black silhouette tattoo of three small birds in flight on the inner wrist, in a black and white photo of a hand raised near a knit hat.
Three small birds on a wrist
Close view of a small solid black world map silhouette tattoo on the inner forearm near the wrist, with a person in a red polka dot shirt and black trousers behind.
Small world map tattoo on a forearm
Small black hummingbird silhouette tattoo in fine line style on the back of a person's neck, with hair pinned up and a blurred background.
Hummingbird tattoo on the neck
Black ink tattoo of a bare tree with branches over the shoulder and upper arm, with three birds in flight across the upper back, photographed from behind.
Bare tree and birds on a shoulder
Two small solid black bird silhouettes tattooed on the inner wrist of a forearm, shown in a black and white photograph.
Two small birds on the wrist
Two black and grey swallows tattooed on a person's upper back, near the shoulder blade.
Two swallows on a shoulder
Solid black silhouette tattoo of three birds in flight on the upper chest near the collarbone, with a black strap top in view.
Three birds in flight on the collarbone
Three small solid black swallow silhouettes in fine line style on the inside of a wrist, with the hand raised above.
Three small swallows on a wrist
Small black tattoo of four birds in flight running up the inner forearm near the wrist, in a photo with a blurred green background.
Four flying birds on a wrist
Fine line black tattoo of a dandelion releasing seeds that become small flying birds, running from the shoulder blade up towards the neck.
Dandelion seeds turning into birds on upper back

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.