Black and grey swallow tattoo on the inner forearm of a person in a light grey sweater, with a ring on their hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Swallow tattoo on a forearm

Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A small swallow in flight is tattooed on the inner forearm, with its wings spread and body angled downward. The design uses dark ink with grey shading on the feathers and body, and the linework is fine and clean. The forearm sits in the lower-right area of the frame, with a hand holding the sleeve and a ring visible above it against a soft, muted background.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The swallows came back to Barrow Court on the Tuesday, two of them, and they went straight for the gap under the walkway where the Ellisons' satellite dish used to be. Mr Okafor from the fourth floor swears it's the same pair that nested there in 1998, and I've decided to believe him, because nobody else on this block believes in anything much these days, least of all the council.

You'll remember I said I'd leave the balcony door open for you the summer you got back from Hull. Well, it's open. I've swept the concrete and put out the blue pot with the geraniums you thought were dead. They're not dead. Everything here is more stubborn than it looks, including me.

Mrs Dale's grandson painted a swallow on the bin store wall last week, and the caretaker made him paint it over, which I thought was a shame. Three kids on the eleventh floor have been counting the birds from their windows and chalking the numbers on the walkway. Forty-one by Thursday. I asked them what they'd do with forty-one and they said they'd take them all to the sea.

Come home before the first ones leave. The birds know the way back. I'm not sure I do, but I'd rather wait on the balcony than queue in the post office for a stamp to send you another card that says nothing.

Love, Mum

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