Black and grey phoenix tattoo with spread wings and a long ornamental tail, placed centrally on a person's upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Phoenix rising across a back

Back · Black and grey · Photo

A phoenix with wings spread wide and head raised sits at the top of the design, with fine feather detail and soft shading. Its long tail falls down the back, ending in swirling scroll lines and small circular motifs. The ink is dark grey and black on pale skin, with the design centred on the back.

Back Phoenix Bird Wing Feather Tail Swirl Circle

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The snow had sealed the Hollin Pass for three days, and the Tallow Inn had run out of everything except ale and patience. You swept the hearth every dawn since the ostler's boy took the fever, carrying the grey ash out in a tin bucket to the midden behind the stable. This morning the bucket feels lighter than it should, and the ash inside has begun to glow.

Keep reading

Mistress Orla comes down the stairs with her shawl half on and tells you to leave it alone, that the damp gets into everything. But the glow shifts and gathers, and something lifts out of the grey like a struck match finding its wick. It is no bigger than a thrush at first. Then its wings open, and the taproom fills with the smell of hot resin and wet wool. Its tail trails behind in long threads of light, curled at the ends into scrolls, and each curl holds a small pale ring, like a moon seen through smoke.

Nobody believes you. The carter says it's a lantern wick, and the miller blames the cook for burning the bread again. You keep the bucket by the door anyway and check it each morning. On the fourth day the wind drops, the road opens, and the bird is gone, but the ash stays warm to the touch and the hearth has never burned so clean.

On the fifth morning you find a single ember-coloured feather pressed into the flour sack, its tip curled into a scroll. You tuck it into your apron pocket, fetch the tinder box, and go to light the fire.