Black and grey tattoo of a swallow in flight with soft, feathered shading on pale skin.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Swallow in flight in black and grey

Black and grey · Photo

A single swallow in mid-flight, with its body angled to the left and its wings swept upward and back. The linework is soft and feathered, with shading that fades into the pale background at the wing tips and tail. Only black ink and grey tones are visible, and the plain background keeps the focus on the bird.

Swallow Bird Flight

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

The swallow came in off the sea on the last Tuesday of September, when the wind had already swung north and the gulls had given up on the rock. I found it on the gallery rail at first light, a small dark thing with its tail spread like a pair of scissors, too tired to startle when I lifted it in my cupped hands.

Keep reading

My brother Tom had always said swallows come back to the same eaves, and that a man ought to be as sure of his way home. I kept the bird in the wash house in a shoebox lined with my mother's old tea towel, and fed it mealworms from the bait tin with the end of a matchstick until it could sit on my knuckle and grip without shaking. Mrs Pryce from the mainland shop said it would never survive the crossing north. I told her it had already crossed the whole Channel, so it knew more about it than she did.

On the seventh night I opened the lantern door for the trimming and the bird went past my ear, low and quick, wings swept back. It did not make for the land. It climbed the beam itself, turning in the white sweep as the lens came round, and for one pass I saw every feather lit against the dark water. Then the fog closed over it.

Next morning the relief boat was late and the sea lay flat as a plate. I stood at the rail and counted the birds over the water, and there were only gulls. I went down and put the kettle on for the boatman, and left the shoebox open on the kitchen table, just in case.