Black and grey traditional style tattoo of three small birds perched on a thin wire, placed on the side of a person's ribs.

Three birds on a wire on the ribs

Traditional · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

Three small birds sit side by side on a single horizontal wire, each with a curled swirl marking on its head. The birds are outlined with dark linework and shaded in soft greys, with the central bird lighter across its chest. The design is centred on the ribcage against a plain background, with a blue top visible above it.

Traditional Ribs Bird Wire Swallow

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

Dear Ruth, you will laugh at me, but the abbot has finally given up on the wire. Brother Anselm wanted it taken down in June, when the swallows began nesting in the eaves above the infirmary, and I said nothing, because I was holding the other end of the coil and it seemed a poor time to argue with a man who believes in pulleys more than prayer.

Keep reading

The wire runs from the bell tower to the old kitchen hatch, so that when the bread is out Brother Wilfrid can ring for it without climbing the stairs on his bad knee. Three swallows came to it the second week of May. I have not learned to tell one from the next, but they keep a rota of their own: the one with the crooked tail always takes the middle spot, and the smallest sits at the far end where the wire bends toward the lavender. They sit there in a row through the Office of Vespers, as patient as novices, and they do not once look at the bell.

Last Thursday the wind came round from the west and the wire sang like a plucked string. I went up to check the splice and found the middle bird had fallen asleep with its head tucked under its wing, so I stood there on the ladder holding my breath like a fool, until the bell for Compline rang out below and the three of them lifted together, straight over the cloister roof, as if someone had given the signal.

So the wire stays. I told the abbot it was a matter of structural soundness, which is true, and he did not argue. He has a soft spot for the middle one too, I think. Write soon, and tell me whether Father has forgiven you for the goat.