Colour tattoo of an orange mockingjay bird with an arrow inside a black circle with an orange ring, with a banner reading May the odds be ever in your favor, on a person's upper back.

Mockingjay badge on upper back

Traditional · Back · Colour · Photo

A bird with outstretched wings and an arrow through its body is set inside a black circle edged with an orange ring. A white banner across the design reads MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR in black capitals. The bird and ring are shaded in orange and yellow with bold black outlines, and the tattoo is centred on the upper back.

Traditional Back Bird Arrow Circle Banner Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

At the wedding in Harrow Wend, the guests kept glancing at the sky, because the bride was late and the weather had turned. Old Agnes said the bird on the lychgate had been mimicking the church bell since dawn, and that a bell-copying bird was a bad omen for a day that needed to be quiet.

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The bird was small and grey-brown with a dark throat, and it could copy any voice in the parish. It had the blacksmith's cough, the priest's Latin, the baby's wail. Ned Coller, the bride's brother, had never liked it. He had shot at it twice for stealing seed, and twice it had dropped into the hedge and laughed at him in their mother's voice. This morning he drew his bow on the lychgate again, pulling the string back until his knuckle touched his cheek.

The arrow went straight, and the bird took it through the wing and dropped into the stone circle beside the well. Nobody moved. Then, from the grass where it lay with the shaft through its body, the bird began to sing the bride's name in Ned's voice, clear as a bell, and the whole churchyard went quiet to listen.

The bride came down the lane at last, her hem wet from the ford. She stepped over the arrow, knelt, and lifted the bird in her two hands. It was still singing when she pulled the shaft free, and it flew off over the roofs, carrying the sound of the vows away with it. Ned never drew a bow on that bird again, and every wedding in the valley after that began with someone whistling its song.