Black and white diptych of two swan tattoos on an upper arm: a solid swan with dotted fading wing on the left, and a fine line outline swan on the right.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Swan tattoos on the upper arm, solid and outline

Fine line · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The image shows two side-by-side photographs of swan tattoos on the same upper arm, with a striped fabric visible in the background. The left swan is filled with solid black ink, and its wing breaks up into dots that fade out toward the top edge. The right swan is a single-line outline with fine feathered detail on the wings and neck, set on a plain area of skin. Both are black and grey and centred in their frames.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The rain has come sideways across Saltergate market since Tuesday, and I have sold exactly two prints, both to men who wanted something for their mothers. Mr Oduya on the fish stall lets me shelter under his awning, which is how I came to be drawing on the back of a feed sack when your call came through. I know you think I should have gone to Leeds with you. I know I should have. But somebody has to keep Dad's hand-lettered price cards dry, and it might as well be the one who can't sing.

I have been trying the black swan again, the one you always said looked dipped in harbour water. Fountain pen bled through the wet card, so I went back to the stippling pen from Dad's tin. Solid at the neck and breast, then the wing breaking into dots along the edge, thinning out toward the top like a bird slipping into dusk over the water. A man bought it this morning and asked whether the dots were meant to be spray paint. I told him they were the part where the ink ran out before the bird did.

The white one I did in outline, the way you taught me, one unbroken line for the neck and then the feathers picked out in short strokes along the wing. It is the only drawing I have not been able to sell, and I have stopped minding. It sits on the sack beside the tea flask, dry as anything under the awning.

The rain thinned around four o'clock. Mr Oduya shook out his tarpaulin, and the gulls came back to the bins. Come home at Easter if the trains behave. The black swan is yours if you want it.

Love, Jo

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