Black and grey pencil drawing of a phoenix with spread wings, flames and long flowing tail feathers, a design suitable for a large tattoo.

Phoenix with flowing tail feathers

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

A pencil drawing of a phoenix in mid-flight, with wings spread wide and its head turned sharply to the left. Wisps of flame rise from the wings and body, and the long tail feathers trail down and curl across the lower half of the page. The shading uses soft graded greys and dark hatching, with a pale off-white paper background and the drawing centred on the sheet.

Traditional Phoenix Bird Flame Feather Wing

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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

Put the knife down, Tomas, and mind the sieve, because I'm not telling this twice and you'll want your hands for the spuds. The stove in this galley was lit the night the Marguerite Lowe lost her foremast off the Dogger Bank, and it smoked for three days after, the way a wet fire does.

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On the third night, I was alone scrubbing the range when a shape came down the stovepipe like a sooty sleeve pulled through a hole. It had wings spread wide enough to fill the whole galley, and its head was turned sharp to the left, eyeing the oilskins on the hook as if they owed it money. Grey curls of flame lifted off its shoulders and went up the ladder. I didn't scream. You don't, with a ladle in your fist.

It spoke to me in the voice of my dead mate Walt, who always said the stove was a liar. It said it had come to see what was worth saving. I said the bread, and it laughed, and its long tail feathers unrolled down the companionway, dark and curling, gathering every scrap of cinder and burnt crust until the deck shone like wet slate.

Next morning the stove drew clean for the first time in a month, and the bird's tail was gone from the stairs. But there's a scorch on the back of my left hand in the shape of a feather, and every bad fire I've been near since has gone out quicker than it ought. Now pass me that colander, and mind the stew, he's had his eye on it.