Black and grey realism tattoo of four numbered finch beak studies with script reading Charles Darwin 1845 on an upper arm.

Four numbered finch beak studies on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

Four numbered bird heads, each showing a different beak shape, are stacked vertically down the arm. The shading is soft and greyscale, with smooth gradients on the heads and crisp dark outlines on the beaks. Handwritten script below the lowest head reads Charles Darwin and 1845 in black ink against plain skin.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Margaret, the 4.10 to Carlisle has been cancelled again, so I am writing this on the back of a timetable at the far end of platform two, where the wind comes off the viaduct and the tea urn has finally given up. You will laugh, but I have spent the whole afternoon thinking about your uncle's drawer of little grey birds. He used to lay the cards out on the kitchen table, four in a row, and tap each beak with a pencil as though it might confess something.

Keep reading

Mr Hollis from the goods yard sat beside me an hour ago and asked what I was reading. I showed him the sketch you sent, the one with the four heads numbered down the side. He squinted at the thick beak and said his grandfather would have cracked a hazelnut with that, then at the thin curved one and said it was made for picking grubs out of bark. Somewhere far off, one small bird has its beak exactly as it needs to be, and nobody had to ask it what it wanted.

The guard has just come through shouting about a replacement bus, which I do not believe will come. I am going up to the signal box to ask whether the stationmaster can telephone Carlisle. If he can, I will be on the last train tonight, and I will bring the cards with me, the real ones, so we can sit at the kitchen table and tap each one until it tells us which of us has grown into our face.

Yours in patient waiting, Ada

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