Two matching tattoos on the inner wrists, a small black swallow on the left and a shaded birdcage with an open door on the right, in a fine line style with a red trail.

Swallow and open birdcage on wrists

Fine line · Forearm · Mixed · Photo

Two tattoos sit side by side on the inner wrists. The left shows a small black swallow in flight with a faint red trail behind it, and the right shows a birdcage with its side open, drawn in fine lines with grey shading. The soft, blurred background and close framing keep the focus on the two designs.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Joan, third night on the Ward 9 desk and somebody has left an empty birdcage on the windowsill of Bay C. It's brass, with a little ring on top, and its door hangs open as if it's been waiting to be asked. Sister Hale says a visitor brought it in for Mr Dunmore's budgie, which died in March, and nobody had the heart to take it home.

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At three I was counting controlled drugs with the night porter, Alan, who has a swallow inked on the back of his hand and says they always find their way back to the same eaves. I told him swallows don't go in cages. He said they don't need to, they only need somewhere to come back to. That's the sort of thing Alan says at three in the morning, and I write it down anyway.

At half four the door alarm went off for no reason, so I went to look. The corridor was empty except for a grey feather caught in the lino and a draught from the stairwell that smelt of rain. I picked the feather up and set it on the sill beside the cage, then sat at the desk with my tea going cold while the ward breathed around me.

Here is the thing I haven't told anyone. I've meant to shut that cage door since I started nights. Tonight I didn't. I left it open, took the feather home in my coat pocket, and when I get in I'm going to pin it above the kettle. Love, Anna.

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