Colour tattoo on an upper arm showing a woman in a lace mask beside a teal peacock, with black gothic lettering running down the side.

Masked woman and peacock on upper arm

Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A woman wearing a lace mask over her eyes is shown in black and grey shading, with one hand raised near her chin. Above her, a black peacock with teal and orange feathers sits within thin geometric frame lines. Loose, watercolour-like splashes of yellow, teal and black run across the background, and vertical gothic-style lettering sits beside the figure.

Upper arm Woman Mask Lace Peacock Feather Lettering Frame Splash

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Sit down, the lot of you, and stop pretending you remember the bus timetable. I'll tell you about the masque, since nobody else in this hall was sober enough to keep it straight. It was the summer of the leavers' ball, and Mr Oddie had decided we would go as the Venetian gentry, which meant the sixth form spent three weeks cutting lace from his mother's tablecloths.

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The peacock came from the biology cupboard. Nobody knew whose it was, only that a boy had stuffed it in 1952 and it had sat in a glass case until somebody's sleeve knocked it over. Bella Kerrigan took it home on the Friday and came back with its tail feathers pinned into her hair, teal and burnt orange, and a lace mask over her eyes that she would not take off until the bell went. She said the mask was the only honest thing in the building.

At half past nine the lights went down in the gym, and Bella walked up the steps with her chin lifted and one hand at her throat, the way she'd seen the actresses do in Mr Oddie's slides. Nobody recognised her. I didn't either, not until she spoke, and then I wished I hadn't taught her the subjunctive so well. She said, quite plainly, that she was leaving for Milan on the Monday and none of us would see her again. She was right, which is the trouble with girls who learn their Latin properly.

So when you ask me what became of the peacock, I say it's still in the cupboard. The mask went with her. Pass the biscuits, Gordon, and don't look so pleased with yourself.