Full back tattoo of a phoenix in Japanese style, with red and orange flames on its head and wing, black and grey feathers, and a small colour sun low on the lower back.

Phoenix across a full back

Japanese · Back · Mixed · Photo

A large phoenix covers most of the back, with its head and upper wing in red, orange and yellow flames and its body and lower wing in black and grey. The lower feathers and tail are drawn in bold outline with shaded eye-like markings, and a small colour sun sits at the base of the back. The composition fills the frame from shoulder to lower back, with the bird's wing sweeping outward across the shoulder blades.

Japanese Back Phoenix Flame Feather Sun Bird Tail feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz, I know you will say I have been at the sherry again, but the bird came down over the hop kilns on Tuesday night, and I have written it out properly for the parish book so the record shows I was sober. You were always the one who wanted proof of things, so here it is.

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It was not burning, not truly. The flames sat on its head and crept along the top of its wing the way fire climbs a dry hedge, red and orange and a yellow so bright it hurt to look at, while the rest of it was grey as the ash drifting down Carrow Lane. Its tail fanned out long and heavy, every feather drawn in black lines, and near the tips each one carried a round eye that turned, slow as a clock hand, to look at the men standing in the yard with their buckets. Halloran swore one of them winked at him. Halloran also swears he saw the Bishop dance, so take that as you will.

Nobody moved for what felt like an hour. Then the bird lifted off the kiln roof without a sound, and the air above the fields went gold, as if someone had opened a furnace door on the sun itself. By morning the hops were dry as paper and not one bine was scorched. The kiln stone stayed warm to the touch for three days after.

I went out this morning and found a single tail feather caught in the wire by the gate. It was still warm. I have put it in the biscuit tin with your grandfather's letters, and when you come home at Easter you can tell me it belonged to a pheasant. Love, Nan.