Black and grey owl tattoo perched on a branch on the inner forearm, with patterned feathers in a blackwork and dotwork style.

Owl on a branch on the forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A stylised owl with large round eyes sits on a bare branch that crosses its feet. Bold black outlines define the head and branch, while the wings and chest are filled with geometric patterns, hatching and dotwork in black and grey. The design is centred along the inner forearm near the wrist, photographed against a pale blue paper surface.

Blackwork Dotwork Forearm Owl Branch Feather Eye Dot Pattern

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The orchard at Hollin Bottom had forty old trees and one owl, and the owl had the best of the fruit without ever picking any. Every August the pickers came up from the village with their baskets and their sour bread, and every August the owl sat on the same crooked bough above the gate and watched them with eyes as round as cider cups.

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A girl called Win Teague came that year to take the place of her mother, who had gone to the hospital in Leeds and would not be back before the frost. Win was twelve and fast with her hands, and she was frightened of the owl. Her mother had told her the old people called it the keeper, and that a keeper was owed a share. Win thought this was nonsense and said so to the bough. The owl said nothing, which she took as agreement.

On the last Saturday the wasps came in thick over the windfalls and the baskets would not fill. Win sat on the wall with her hands in her lap. Then she took the best of her mother's pears, the bruised one she had been saving for her tea, and set it on the top step of the gate. She went home without looking back.

In the morning the pear was gone and there was a grey feather lying where it had been, sharp at one end and fine as a pen nib. Win picked it up. The baskets that day were full by noon, and nobody could say why the wasps had gone off to the hedge.