Fine line tattoo of four small black birds in flight on the side of a woman's neck, with a blonde fishtail braid.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Four small birds on the neck

Fine line · Neck · Black and grey · Photo

Four small black bird silhouettes fly in a loose diagonal line across the side of the neck, descending towards the shoulder. The birds are simple solid shapes with little interior detail, rendered in a single dark ink. The soft, pale background and black top keep the focus on the small, widely spaced tattoo.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The swifts went on Tuesday, all at once, the way they always do, as if someone had rung a bell over the allotments. I stood by the water butt with the trowel still in my hand and counted them off the way Dad taught us to count the ducks on the mill pond. Four went up over the shed roof and wheeled out towards the chapel spire. Four, Ruth. I have counted swifts in this garden for forty-one summers and I have never once seen a group of four.

Mr Okafor from plot nine says it is only the birds sorting themselves before the crossing, and he may well be right. He has been right about most things since his wife passed, which is more than I can say for the council. But the one at the back kept dropping lower than the others, a few yards at a time, as though the air was heavier on that side. I thought she would fall into the runner beans. Instead she caught the warm rise off the bonfire smoke and went after them in that loose slanting line, like a sentence the others had already finished.

I have kept the packet of your sweet peas in my apron pocket all week, meaning to post it. Plant them by the back fence where the wall keeps the frost off. The birds will come back to the hedge in spring, so there will be somewhere to look.

Love, Edie

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