Black lace-patterned bird with blue wing and tail accents, perched on a branch on the inner forearm.

Lace-patterned bird on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

A small songbird perched on a thin branch, its body and wings filled with black lace-like ornamental patterns that include flower motifs. The wing and tail feathers are shaded in blue, which contrasts with the black linework and the pale skin. The design sits centrally on the forearm and is shown in a close, well-lit photograph.

Blackwork Forearm Bird Lace Flower Branch Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ada, the lace came out of the frame this morning and I had to sit down on the step with it across my knees. Mother's bobbins are still on the sill where you left them, and I haven't touched them since the funeral. But the pattern you sent, the one with the wild rose and the little leaves, I worked it up in black thread just as you asked, and the bird came out of it without my meaning it to. A wren, or something near enough, perched on a bare twig at the bottom edge where the border ends.

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The woman from the big house came down the lane to collect the christening veil and saw it hanging on the nail by the door. She stood very still for a long while, then asked whether the blue was thread or paint. I told her it was indigo I had kept back from the dyeing, the scrap Father always said was too stubborn to waste. She laughed and said that was the most sensible thing she had heard all month, and paid me double.

So I am sending you the forty shillings, and I am keeping the bird. Come up at Michaelmas if the roads are dry. There is a hollow beech past the mill where the jays nest, and I want to show you the wings in real light before the blue fades from my memory. Your loving sister, Mary.