Black flash sheet of traditional swallows in flight at varied sizes and angles, drawn in solid black on a white background with no body placement shown.

Flying swallows flash sheet

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

The sheet shows around fifteen swallows in flight, arranged in a loose scattered layout across the page. Each bird is drawn in solid black silhouette with white line detail cut into the wings and tail to suggest feather markings. The image is black ink on white with no shading, colour or body placement.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The swallows arrived at Thornley Junction the week the 6.40 started running late, and Stan Oakes swore it was no coincidence. He had the platform lamps to see to that spring and I had the broom, so between us we watched them for a month before anyone thought to tell the works crew.

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They built under the iron canopy above the bay, pressing mud cups to the girders one beakful at a time. Mornings, they came down through the gap in the glass like thrown scissors, skimming the rails and flicking up over the wagons, and by the time the 7.15 to Leeds pulled in they were out over the car park, black against the sheds. Mrs Hollis from the newsagent's used to stop with her thermos and count them. She got to fourteen once, then lost her place when the 8.02 came through and every one of them lifted at the same moment.

In June a letter went up on the notice board. The canopy was coming down in August for the new footbridge, and the nests would be cleared before the season was properly done. Stan said it was the only sensible thing anyone in an office had ever decided about birds. I didn't argue. One evening I went up the ladder on my own with a scraper I had no business carrying, and found the cups empty and two young birds sitting on the wire as if they had been waiting for me.

I left the scraper on the ladder. Stan came along at dusk to check the lamps and found me on the bench with my boots off, watching the birds dip and climb over the sidings. "They always come back to the same platform," he said. I hope he was right. I kept that notice, and it is still pinned above the kettle.

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