Two matching black and grey tattoos of a bird perched on a curling branch with leaves, one on each forearm near the wrist.

Matching bird and branch forearm tattoos

Botanical · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Two near-identical tattoos sit on the inner forearms just above the wrists, each showing a small bird perched on a thin branch that curls into a heart-like loop with leaves. The linework is dark and fairly bold, with soft shading on the bird's body and wings. The image is entirely black and grey, and the wrists are held together in clenched fists against a blurred, pale background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Pia,

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The guard at the crossing at Halden turned my passport over twice, as if the photograph might have changed its mind about me in the post. He asked what I was carrying. I said I was visiting family, which was true enough. Then he noticed my forearms resting on the counter, and his face went still.

Otto drew our birds three times on tracing paper before he was satisfied. The branch curls round into a loop, and inside it each bird sits with its head turned back toward the other, as if it has just heard its name. He said the heart shape wasn't something he'd added. It was simply where the branch wanted to go once it had two birds to hold. Under the lamp we pressed our inner arms together, and the lines met at the wrist like a door that opens from both sides.

"Matching?" the guard asked. "Matching," I said. "We went in the same afternoon so neither of us could claim the better bird." He studied the soft grey shading along the wings, then the window behind him, where the rain had started to blur the lorries into one long shape. He said nothing for a while. Then he stamped the page and waved me through, which I have decided was kindness.

Tell Mama the birds are still facing each other on this side. Mine has started to fade at the edges, the way Otto warned it would, so come over before winter and we'll sit at the kitchen table and go over the lines together. Bring the tracing paper if you still have it.

Your sister, Ilse

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