Neo-traditional tattoo of a red bird head with a feathered crest inside a rope-edged heart on a forearm, with a Celtic knot charm hanging below.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Red bird in rope heart on forearm

Neo-trad · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A red bird's head in profile sits inside a heart-shaped outline edged with a twisted rope, with a Celtic knot charm hanging from the point. The bird has smooth red shading, a black beak and eye, and a crest of red and black feathers with bold black outlines. Other tattoos with green foliage and grey shading surround the central piece on the arm.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marion,

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The lift on Carrow House has been out since Tuesday, so I've been walking the fourteen flights with the shopping and counting the landings like you used to. Mrs Adeyemi on eleven says the council will get round to it when the pigeons learn to press buttons. Her budgerigar died last month and she's been knitting it a tiny scarf out of the wool she was saving for your christening blanket, which I'm told is not a sentimental thing to say, but there it is.

Last Sunday I took the cardinal down to the canal. You remember the one Dad carved from a bit of pallet wood, the crested red one with the rope round its neck? I finally found the rope in the bottom of his toolbox, along with the little Celtic knot he made from a bent spoon. I tied it on the way he showed us, a loop for the heart and a half hitch for luck, and hung it from the railing. The cardinal sat there looking stupid and magnificent in the drizzle, feathers up like a fool at a wedding.

A boy from the fourth floor came past with a dog and asked if it was real. I said it was almost real, which is about as much honesty as a Sunday allows. He asked if he could keep it. I said no, but he could visit it whenever he liked.

Come home at Easter if you can. The lift will be working by then, or so the man from the council swears on his mother. I'll leave the rope on the railing until you do.

Love, Nell

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