Three views of a black and grey realism tattoo on a calf showing a detailed owl in front of a gothic castle with spires.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic owl and castle on a calf

Realism · Other · Black and grey · Photo

A large realistic owl with detailed feathers and a pale face, looking towards the viewer, sits in front of a gothic castle with tall spires and a rows of windows. The shading is soft and smooth, with fine feather texture and a dark, misty treeline fading into the background. The photo is shown as three panels from different angles against green grass, and the tattoo is entirely black and grey.

Realism Other Owl Castle Spire Feather Tree Eye

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

Dear Ma,

Keep reading

The owl came down through the rigging again this morning, just as the bell for the forenoon watch was going, and landed on the spare yard as if it had paid for the berth. Cook says it's a snowy, though I've never seen one with eyes that look so put out. A leather pouch was strapped to its leg, and inside it, folded small enough to fit under a fingernail, was your letter from the Tollesbury post. I read it twice before the mate caught me with my nose in it.

You'll want to know about the castle, since you asked in the last one. We've passed it three times now, always from the same bend in the coast, grey stone standing on the headland with its spires poking through a bank of fog like someone forgot to take the pins out. Nobody aboard will sail closer. Old Harrow swears there's a light in the top window every night we pass, and I've stopped laughing at him, because I've seen it too.

The owl belongs to it, I think. Each time it comes, it carries one letter out to us and one back, and it has never once missed. Yesterday I tied my reply to its leg with the spare twine and told it to mind the sea, which felt daft, but it looked at me so sharp and steady that I wasn't sure who was the daft one.

We should raise the coast in nine days. I'll post this with the owl if it'll take it, and if it doesn't, you'll know the sea had the last word. Tell Dolly the parrot is not a sailor and I'll be home for her birthday regardless.

Your son, Tom