Traditional style tattoo of a robin perched on a branch with red flowers and leaves, on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Robin and flowers on an upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A robin perches on a branch with red and pink flowers, rosebuds and dark leaves surrounding it. The bird is shaded in grey and black with a red breast, and the outlines are bold and dark. Bright red, pink and black ink dominate the composition, which fills the upper arm.

Traditional Upper arm Bird Flower Rose Branch Leaves Rosebud

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody at Harrowden Road expects a bird to keep a timetable, but the robin has sat on the lamp bracket above platform two every morning since the frost, and you have started setting your flask down beside the bench as if it were a colleague. Dennis in the signal box says it is after the crumbs. You say it is after company, and he says that is the same thing with feathers.

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The station gardener planted a rose bush against the waiting room wall the spring before the line was last resurfaced, and it has done its best to ignore the diesel fumes ever since. Its buds are the colour of the signal lamps. When the 7.12 horn goes, the robin drops from the bracket, lands on the highest bud, and waits for the carriage doors to shut before it lifts its head and sings, loud enough to cut through the brakes. Nobody else on the platform hears it. You do.

The county letter arrived on Tuesday. Platform two closes Friday, the line goes through the new junction at Cold Ash, and the ticket hatch will be bricked up by the autumn. Dennis wanted to know what you planned to do with yourself. You said you planned to finish your tea.

On Friday the last train is cancelled for a sheep on the track, so you stand alone under the lamp with the flask. The robin comes down to the bench, takes a crumb from the wood, and looks at you with the particular impatience of a bird that has done its job. You tear a scrap from the back of a spare ticket, write the platform number and the word stays, and tuck it under the flask lid. The bird takes it as a sign of respect, or it doesn't, and goes back to the rosebud.