Black script quote reading Our flaws are what makes us perfect, with four solid bird silhouettes, tattooed on the side of the ribs.

Quote with four flying birds on ribs

Lettering · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A handwritten script quote, reading "Our flaws are what makes us perfect.", runs across the side of the torso above four solid black bird silhouettes of varying size and flight pose. The lettering has flowing, fine strokes, while the birds are filled in solid black with some small internal detail. The piece is entirely black ink, and the photograph is taken at a close angle with a dark fabric strap along the top edge.

Lettering Blackwork Ribs Quote Script Bird Flying bird Silhouette

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, The wind has come round to the west again and the rooks have been shouting about it since first light. I took the cart up to the top field this morning to look at the fence, and there was the young jackdaw that fell out of the chimney in March, the one you named Biscuit. He's flying now, though not straight. He tips left every time he turns, like a man carrying too much shopping, and Mr Harrow down at the mill says he'll never be fit for the wild. I told him what I'd tell you. Plenty of things that get sent out into the world come back with a bent wing and manage perfectly well.

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Your grandad used to say our flaws are what makes us perfect, though he only meant it as a joke about his own ears. I wrote it on the back of the calendar so I'd stop forgetting it. Eleven of the twelve pages are still blank, mostly because I don't write much anymore, and the rest of the house has gone quiet enough that I can hear the clock in the hall from the garden.

This evening four of them went up over the larches, the big grey one first, then the smaller ones trailing after as if somebody had hung them on a string. Biscuit came last and took the longest to find his line, lurching once against the sky before he settled in behind the others. I counted them twice to be sure none had stayed behind.

Come home at Easter and I'll show you the bent one. You can tell me whether he looks perfect or only looks like he's trying, and I'll tell you which of those I'd rather have on the windowsill. Your loving Nan, Ada.