Black line drawing of an ornate peacock with a curled neck, scrolled tail feathers and leaf motifs, shown as a tattoo design on plain paper.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornate peacock line drawing

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A standing peacock with a raised, curved neck and a crest of fine plumes faces left. Its body and wing are rendered in fine black outlines with hatched and scalloped detail, and the long tail spreads into flowing scrolls, leaves and teardrop-shaped motifs. The drawing is in black ink on a white background with no colour.

Fine line Peacock Feather Scroll Leaves Bird Crest

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nell had counted the peacock's feathers every morning since the frost came, because counting gave her hands something to do while the kettle heated. It was old Mr Ransome's bird, left to her when the lease on Hollin Farm passed over. It came down from the hayloft each day with its crest of fine plumes sleeked flat with rime.

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Her brother Tom wanted it gone. 'It's eating the barley we need for the heifers,' he said, stamping snow off his boots at the byre door. She said nothing, because the bird had stood in the lee of the wall all week with its neck curved like a question mark, turning its head to watch the lane.

On the sixth morning a van crunched up the lane, and a man in a green coat asked whether the old peacock was still about. He had come for Ransome's ledgers and a crate of seed catalogues, and he stood looking at the bird as though it were an invoice he had not expected. The bird stepped out after Nell into the trampled snow and spread its tail across the yard, the teardrop plumes catching the low sun like brass on a clock face.

Tom watched from the gate. The bird lifted, badly, onto the byre roof and fanned its scrolls until the whole yard went dark with shadow and then gold. 'Well,' Tom said, and went back in for the second flask. Nell left the barley out after that.