Black and grey fine line tattoo of five swallows flying towards a shaded feather on the upper back near the shoulder blade.

Swallows and feather on upper back

Fine line · Back · Black and grey · Photo

Five small swallows fly in a diagonal line from the upper back towards a shaded feather near the shoulder blade. The birds are drawn with fine, delicate linework, while the feather uses softer grey shading to show its texture and quill. The image is black and white, with the skin tone and the dark background giving the tattoo clear contrast.

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

Sit down properly, love, you'll only fidget if you perch on the wall like that. There. Now, the swallows. You think they come back every spring because they fancy our hedge? They come back because of a promise made in this very garden, a long time before your grandmother's grandmother was born.

Keep reading

The promise was made by a girl called Maud Pellow, who was the sort who picked up things other people walked past. One January, when the frost had taken the apples, she found a feather in the lane by the gate, long and grey, with a black tip like it had been dipped in ink. Her little brother Tom lay upstairs with the fever, and the doctor had stopped coming. So Maud went up, held the feather above his bed, and told him the swallows would carry him south on their backs if he could only hold on until they came home.

Tom did not die, though the doctor swore he would. Each spring after, five swallows came over the wall in a long slant, always in the same line, and they dipped low over the shed roof where Maud had pinned that feather to the beam. She grew old and bent. The feather went the colour of dishwater from the smoke off the range. When her legs gave out, she made her grandson stand at the kitchen window every April and count them for her.

Last spring he counted five, and then a sixth that was not a swallow at all, just a shadow flickering on the lawn. He went out to tell her and found her in the sun with her eyes closed and that old grey feather resting in her lap. Pass me that cup, would you, and mind the wasps. The swallows are early this year. I can hear them over the wall.

More like this

Black and grey fine line tattoo of two birds perched on a thin branch with small leaves, on a person's upper back near the shoulder.
Two birds on a branch on the upper back
Black and grey shaded tattoo of a gnarled, bare tree with sparse branches across the upper back and shoulder blade, photographed from behind.
Gnarled tree tattoo across upper back
Small black and grey fine line swallow tattoo in flight on the side of a neck, with a dangling teal earring nearby.
Swallow in flight on the neck
Black and grey realism tattoo of a feather breaking apart into flying birds on the side of the ribs.
Feather dissolving into birds on the ribs
Close photograph of a small black silhouette tattoo of four birds in flight on pale skin, placed on the side of the body near the ribs.
Four birds in flight on the side of the body
Black fine line tattoo of a dandelion whose seeds become flying birds, running across the upper back towards the shoulder.
Dandelion seeds turning into birds on upper back
Black and grey blackwork tattoo of three solid black swallows in flight across the side of a torso, shown in a black and white photograph.
Three swallows in flight on the side
Black and grey fine line tattoo of a hummingbird feeding from a dandelion above lily of the valley, poppy and fern stems, on the thigh.
Hummingbird and wildflowers on a thigh
Black and grey realism tattoo of a bird in flight holding a dreamcatcher with hanging feathers across a woman's upper back and shoulder blade.
Bird in flight with dreamcatcher on back
Black and grey tattoo of a blossom vine with butterflies and small sparkles across the upper back and shoulder blade.
Blossom vine and butterflies on a shoulder blade
Fine line black and grey tattoo of two birds perched on a leafy branch, with a third bird in flight above, on the forearm.
Three birds on a branch on a forearm
Black silhouette of a bare tree with fine branches and three flying birds tattooed across a woman's shoulder and upper arm.
Bare tree and birds on a shoulder

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