Small black swallow tattoo in a traditional style on the outer forearm of a person resting their arm on a white fluffy rug.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Swallow tattoo on a forearm

Traditional · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small swallow in flight is tattooed on the outer forearm, with its wings spread upward and its forked tail visible. The design uses solid black ink with bold outlines and simple shading on the wings. The photo is taken from a close angle against a white fluffy rug, with a grey knit sweater sleeve and a hand wearing a gold ring at the edge of the frame.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom, they came back to the net shed the same week the Morag went out without you, two of them, quarrelling over the nail where your cap used to hang. I have left them be. Mam says it is bad luck to shift a nesting bird, and I have decided to believe her, since it is the only superstition in the house she has not yet argued me out of.

Keep reading

The island has gone quiet in the way it does before the fleet is home. Mrs Gunn at the post office says the mainland paper printed your name under the list from the Atlantic, and I have read it so often the ink has smeared on my thumb. Old Ruaridh says early swallows mean a hard winter is behind us, which is some comfort, though I cannot see what the winter had to do with you being on that boat.

Yesterday I climbed up to the headland with the flask and sat where you showed me the fulmars. From there you can see the whole sweep of water to the south, grey and then silver where the light catches it. I watched a pair of swallows drop low over the waves, forks open like scissors, then climb again as if the sea had asked them a question and they had answered no.

Come home when the shearwaters do. I will keep the nail clear.

Love, Ellen

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