Black and grey tattoo of four birds flying above an infinity symbol with the word faith in script, on the shoulder of a person seen from behind.

Four birds and infinity script on shoulder

Lettering · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

Four grey birds in silhouette fly in a diagonal line across the upper back and shoulder, leading toward a large black infinity symbol. The word faith is written in cursive script inside the loop of the infinity sign, with bold, clean outlines and soft grey shading on the birds. The image is in colour-free tones, with the subject shot from behind against an indoor background.

Lettering Shoulder Bird Infinity symbol Faith Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The loft smelled of dust and feathers the morning Dad handed me the ring book, and I counted the four blue hens roosting in the top row as if they might argue. Four was the number that went out from Eilean Mór on the Tuesday boat, the number Mrs Gillies carried across to Oban with her case of tea tins and a promise to be back before Christmas. Four birds, four names, pencilled on the inside of the cupboard door where Dad kept his lists.

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We clipped their wings in March, which he said was cruel, and then let them go from the cliff anyway, because a bird that cannot fly is only a pet and a loft is no home for something meant to leave. The first came back within the day. The second took a week and landed with a torn foot and a scrap of blue wool knotted round its leg, the same wool Mrs Gillies knitted the boys' jumpers from. I did not tell Dad. He was already watching the sky for the wrong colour.

By the autumn gales there were three rings on the wall and one empty, and I started walking down to the slipway each evening with a flask and the spare key to the loft. The sea there never quite closes its loop. The tide folds back on itself and on itself, and as a child I thought that was a mistake in the sums. Then in November the last bird came in low over the harbour wall with the wind behind it, and I opened the door, and the whole loft filled up with wings.