Black and grey swallow tattoo with ornamental patterned wings sitting on the upper chest near the collarbone.

Swallow tattoo near the collarbone

Traditional · Chest · Black and grey · Photo

A swallow in flight is outlined in black ink, with its wings and body filled by decorative scroll and paisley-like patterns. The linework is bold and even, with the filled areas showing fine detail in the wing feathers and the belly. The bird sits on the upper chest beside the shoulder, shown in a close, softly lit photograph with the rest of the body and hair at the edges.

Traditional Chest Swallow Bird Paisley Scroll Ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The wind off the Tyne had teeth that morning, and Mags Corrigan swore it had got into the rigging of the Brightwater overnight and taken a bite out of every rope. Old Halloran said the swallows knew before any of us. They had been gathering on the harbour wall for three days, lined up like sailors waiting on a bosun, and when they lifted together the whole pier went quiet.

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The lads from the Marigold came up the gangway with a bottle between them and a tin of blue ink they'd bought off a cook in Gdansk. They wanted a ship's bird on every shoulder before the tide turned, the way it had always been done, and Mags was the only one left with a steady hand. She painted them slow, filling each wing with the scrollwork her grandmother had taught her from the back of prayer cards, paisley swirls that ran up the feathers like smoke and curled round the belly until the bird looked half-carved from a church door.

By the time she reached the last lad, the tide had turned anyway. He sat with his shirt off on an upturned crate, grinning at the gulls, and asked her to make the swirls go the way they went on his mother's tablecloth. She did. When the Brightwater finally slipped her lines and went out past the breakwater, the swallows followed her all the way to the light, and every man aboard could feel the little black birds riding on his collarbone, pointed toward home.