Colour tattoo of a swallow in flight on the inner upper arm, with a red throat and shaded grey and brown wings.

Swallow in flight on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A swallow is shown in mid-flight with its wings spread wide and its forked tail extended. The bird has soft grey and brown shading across its body and wings, with a bright red throat patch and dark outlined feathers. The arm is photographed against a dark background, with the tattoo as the clear focus, and the wearer's hair and white top softly blurred in the frame.

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 swallows came back to the Dunmore harbour wall the same week the fishing boats went out short-handed, and Bet Carrick swore they knew something the rest of us didn't. Her grandfather had kept a ledger of arrivals in a tin box under the wheelhouse bench, dates in pencil, and every spring the birds beat him by a day or two. He said a swallow never turned back once it had crossed open water, so you could read the weather in which way they flew.

Keep reading

The Maud Ellen went out on the ninth of April with a fair wind and a red sky, and the swallows went the other way, low over the slipway, chattering as if they had news. Bet stood on the wall with the tin box under her arm and watched them until the boat was a speck. Then she walked back to the cottage, lit the range, and wrote the date in the margin, under her grandfather's last entry, in her own careful hand.

The Maud Ellen came in four days later with her mast snapped and her crew bailing, having turned for home the moment the birds had told them to. Nobody could say who had seen the swallows first, and Bet never let anyone claim it was her. She only kept the ledger open on the bench and let the pencil marks speak for themselves.

More like this

Black and grey photo of a small solid black bat tattoo on the upper back near the shoulder blade, seen from behind.
Small bat tattoo on upper back
Fine line black botanical sprig with a peony, fern fronds and a succulent-style flower on the inner forearm.
Botanical sprig with peony and fern on forearm
Fine line black feather tattoo on a woman's shoulder, photographed against a bright backlit background.
Small feather tattoo on a shoulder
Black and grey shaded bow tattoo with an outlined loop and tails on the nape of a person's neck, with hair pinned up above it.
Bow tattoo on the nape of the neck
Small black fine line tattoo resembling an Om symbol on the inner wrist of a hand raised against a black background.
Small fine line Om symbol on the wrist
Fine line botanical tattoo of leaves, swirls and dots running down a forearm towards the wrist, in dark grey ink.
Floral swirl tattoo on a forearm
Small fine line black butterfly tattoo with swirling dotted trails on the outer ankle of a light-skinned leg.
Butterfly with swirls on an ankle
Small black fine line botanical tattoo of a flower on a stem, on the back of a hand near the wrist.
Small black flower on the back of a hand
Two swallow tattoos on a wrist and forearm, one in coloured ink with red throat and brown wings, the other a solid black silhouette.
Two swallows on wrists
Close view of a small solid black world map silhouette tattoo on the inner forearm near the wrist, with a person in a red polka dot shirt and black trousers behind.
Small world map tattoo on a forearm
Small solid black skull and crossbones tattoo, with a hat-like shape above the skull, on the back of a hand against a black background.
Small skull and crossbones on a hand
Fine line black tattoo of a map outline on a forearm, near the wrist, with dark beaded bracelets beside it.
Fine line map outline on a forearm

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.