Fine line black tattoo of a small bird in flight, with long sweeping lines trailing across pale skin.

Small bird in flight with sweeping lines

Fine line · Black and grey · Photo

A small black bird silhouette sits at the left, with several long, tapered lines sweeping up and to the right behind it, suggesting motion. The linework is thin and crisp, with no shading or fill, and the ink is solid black. The close, straight-on framing leaves the skin texture visible and the design fills most of the frame.

Fine line Bird Flight Line Minimal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, the gull that used to steal bread off the harbour wall has gone, and in its place there is a small dark bird that will not sit still long enough for anyone to name. Mrs Pryce at the chandlery says it is a swift, blown in off the Atlantic before the weather turned, and that they never land except to nest. I have decided she is wrong, because I watched it from the top of the slipway for an hour and it never once touched ground. It only skimmed the masts and the sweep of wind on the water, then turned back the way it came.

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Father's boat came in on Thursday without the Grace Ellen. Mr Lowther's men towed her round from Pelham Point with her mainmast snapped like a biscuit. I know you will ask, so yes, they are all home, every one of them, though Davey Lowther has a bandaged hand and is insufferable about it.

I went out to the breakwater this morning with the spare oilskin and the tin of your letters. I meant to burn them, but my hands would not do it. Instead I counted the bird's passes, eleven of them, each one sharper than the last, until the light went orange and it was gone east over the marsh.

Come home when the wind backs round. Bring the good knife for Father, and bring yourself, and do not make me tell you twice. Your loving sister, Nell