Black and grey realism tattoo of two magpies, one in flight and one near blossom branches, across a woman's back.

Magpies and blossom across a back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A woman's bare back shows two magpies tattooed in black and grey. One bird flies up across the shoulder blade while the other spreads its wings low on the side, beside pale blossom branches. The shading is soft and detailed, with fine feather texture and light grey wash on the flowers.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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The magpies came back to the cherry tree the morning after you left, two of them, and I counted them the way Mam taught us, one for sorrow, two for joy, and then I stood in the wet grass feeling foolish because I had no idea which of us was meant to be which. The tree is still in blossom, though the petals are going brown at the edges. Mr Hebden says the orchard wall held through the gales, but the keep above it has lost another corner, and the stones have rolled all the way down to the beck.

You will laugh, but I went up to the castle on Sunday with the bread knife and cut a switch of old ivy from the gatehouse, the way you said we should. Nobody has been up there since the Pringles' boy fell through the floor of the chapel. The arch where the lord's men used to stand is open to the sky now, and there is a magpie nest in the top of the broken tower, big as a hat, sticks woven through with a length of blue ribbon someone must have dropped a hundred years ago.

I have been thinking about what you asked me in the lane, whether I would go with you to Carlisle or stay with the orchard. I have not decided. The birds decided for a while on Thursday, flying together low over the wall and then splitting apart at the cherry, one going to the gatehouse and one to the sheep field, and I thought that was as good an answer as any.

Write soon. Tell Aunt Ruth the ribbon is not hers.

Love, Nan

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