Black ink tattoo of a half face in profile merged with a wing shape on the forearm, drawn in loose sketchy linework.

Half face and wing on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A half face in profile, with one visible eye, blends into a wing-like shape built from feathered black strokes. The linework is loose and broken, with solid black areas in the wing and hatched shading around the eye and cheek. The tattoo sits on the forearm against pale skin, photographed straight on under indoor light.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The lamp went out again at half past four, the way it does when the wind comes down off the tip and gets into the chimney, so I am writing this by the last of the fire with my coat still on. Your letter came with the Thursday post. I read it twice on the step, once for the news and once for the bit about the sea, which you have written in the margin with a little drawing of a gull that looks more like a kettle.

Keep reading

A moth came to the window last night, one of the grey dusty ones that live in the coal-dark hedges by the lane. Its wings were heavy with soot and only half of them caught the candle, so it looked as if someone had folded a page in two and left the other half to the night. Mam says they come up from the seams on the coal carts and that you should never brush the dust off them, for it is the only colour they have.

Dad came in at six with his face washed on one side and black on the other, where he had leaned against the cage at the bottom of the shaft. He sat in his chair and let me take the flannel to the clean half, which is the only time he lets anyone near him. He did not speak, but he touched my wrist the way he used to when you two were small and running at the gate.

I am taking this down to the lamp room in the morning so the post man can have it before the four o'clock cage. If you come home at Christmas, bring the gull. I want to see whether it can fly any better than it draws.

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