Black and grey shaded hummingbird tattoo with swirling flourishes sitting on a person's upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hummingbird with swirls on a shoulder blade

Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A hummingbird in flight faces left, with a long slender beak, a shaded body and wings spread upward. Curling black linework and soft grey shading trail from the wings and tail, creating a flowing, decorative outline. The tattoo is shown in close crop on pale skin, with a dark top strap visible at the upper edge.

Shoulder Hummingbird Bird Swirl Flourish Wing

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, The bird came in again this morning, before the shutters were up and while I was still scraping the last of the rye starter off the bench. It came through the gap above the back door where the glass has been loose since March, and it went straight for the orange blossom water on the shelf, as though someone had told it where to look. Mrs Okafor from the flat above says it is a hummingbird, and she should know, having grown up with them somewhere I cannot pronounce. I have decided it is ours now.

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It hovers the way the loaves do when they are nearly proved, all trembling and no fuss. Its beak is longer than seems fair on a thing that small, and it hangs at the edge of the sugar jar, tipping its head as if reading the labels. When the oven door opens it spins off in a sweep of ash-coloured feathers, round the hanging whisk and out over the flour sacks, leaving behind a curl of something like smoke that I swear hangs in the air a full second after it has gone.

I did not open the window for it this time. I put a dish of syrup on the sill and went back to the bake. When I turned round at six the dish was empty and the sky over the car park had gone the colour of weak tea, and the bird was gone with it. I have left the gap in the glass open anyway. You always said I would rather feed a stray than sell it a loaf, and you were right, and I expect you will tell me so again on Sunday.

Come up before the snow. Bring the good knife.