Sketch-style tattoo of a teal and black bird in flight on the outer forearm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Teal bird in flight on a forearm

Forearm · Colour · Photo

A small bird in flight, with its wings spread and head turned to the right, is shown on the outer arm. The black linework is loose and sketchy, with visible strokes along the wings, tail and feet. Teal wash fills the wings, tail and head, while the body is left mostly pale skin tone.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The rain had been coming down on Saltgate Market since before dawn, turning the cobbles to a grey river that ran past the fish stalls and out into the gutter. Old Marta Ferrow kept her crate under the tarpaulin at the far end, wedged between the cheese man and the seller of cracked pans. Inside it sat one small bird, blue at the wings and pale beneath, and it had not sung once since the Monday.

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A boy called Tobin came up the lane with his hood down and two damp pennies in his fist. He asked the price. Marta looked at the coins and then at the bird, which had turned its head towards the grey light at the crate's gap. 'It's not money she wants,' Marta said. 'She wants the harbour wall and a clear drop to the water. Carry her there and open your hands, and you'll owe me nothing.' Tobin, who owed everyone something, took the crate.

He walked the wet streets with the crate held against his chest, and by the time he reached the harbour the rain had thinned to a fine drizzle that hung in the air like dust. The bird pressed its beak to the slats. He lifted the latch and held out his palm. For a breath nothing happened, and he thought Marta had lied. Then she rose, her wings opening in strokes of teal that seemed still to be settling onto the air, and she went out over the moored boats, over the slate roofs, over the market where the awnings were beginning to dry.

Tobin stayed on the wall until the sky was empty. When he got back to the stalls the next morning, Marta was selling cheese again and had no crate at all. She only looked at his hands and said, 'Good. Now you owe me a loaf,' and he laughed for the first time that week.

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