Colour tattoo of a green-eyed owl with orchids and a small butterfly on a person's upper back near the shoulder blade, in a neo-traditional style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Owl and orchids on a shoulder blade

Neo-trad · Back · Colour · Photo

A large colour tattoo of a wide-eyed owl with bright green eyes and a jewel at its brow sits among pink and purple orchids and trailing vines with beads. A small grey-blue butterfly sits above the owl, near the shoulder. The owl uses detailed feather shading with soft blended tones, and the composition spans the upper back.

Neo-trad Botanical Back Owl Orchid Butterfly Flower Vine Bead Jewel Bird Eye

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The mule had already refused the second bend when Anna Kessler decided the owl was following them. It sat on the pine above the pass, grey as the rock, and every time the lantern swung it turned its head to watch. Her grandmother had said an owl on the road meant someone was keeping count of the travellers, and that you should give it something to look at.

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She took the green glass bead from her collar, the one her mother had strung on waxed silk, and held it up. The owl blinked. Its eyes were the colour of new beech leaves, and a small green stone sat in the feathers between them like a third eye that had decided to stay awake. The villagers said the bird wanted nothing but a fair exchange. Nobody ever said what the fair exchange was.

Below the pass the orchards had gone pink, and a butterfly the size of a fingernail came up the slope ahead of the wind, pale blue and slow. It landed on the mule's ear. The animal stood still for the first time since dawn. Anna understood then that the path had never been the difficulty. The difficulty was the mule, who had wanted to rest.

She tied the bead to a branch of wild orchid growing from a crack in the rock and turned for home. The owl lifted off without a sound. When she reached the village at first light, the church bell was ringing for a christening, and the woman holding the baby had a green thread knotted at her wrist.