Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tribal eagle head design

Black and grey · Flash

A bold black line drawing of an eagle's head shown in profile, facing right, with a single eye and a hooked beak. The design uses thick, tapering black shapes and sharp zigzag strokes to suggest feathers, with no shading or grey tones. It is shown on a plain white background, with no colour ink.

Eagle Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The eagle went up over the stage on Tuesday, and Mr Hollis has not stopped complaining about the cost of the gold leaf. Sid Oakes painted it from a sketch he did on the back of a Co-op ledger, all sharp black strokes with no shading at all, because he said anything grey would look like a rainy Sunday. He was up the ladder for three days with a tin of Indian ink and a jar of turpentine, and by the Thursday the whole hall had gone quiet to watch him.

You should see the beak. It hooks out over the proscenium as if it means to take the bandleader's hat, and the feathers come off the head in long zigzag blades that make the cornice look like it is flying. Mrs Dunn from the cloakroom says it looks Welsh, and Mr Hollis says it looks like a bird that has been to war. I think it looks like it is listening. Its one eye catches the light from the chandeliers, and nobody ever dances with their back to it.

On Saturday the Harrow boys came in with their sixpenny tickets, and one of them stood under it so long that the doorman had to shift him along. He said the eagle was watching him. Sid just laughed and went up the ladder again to touch up a feather that had not been wrong.

Ruth, I am writing because I have decided to ask Sid to dance on Saturday, and I want you to tell me whether I am mad. If the eagle sees it, it can keep its opinion to itself.

Yours, Pearl