Two colour tattoos of birds on leafy branches, one pink and one teal, on the lower legs above a pair of star-print heeled shoes.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two birds on branches on both lower legs

Neo-trad · Calf · Colour · Photo

The photo shows two lower legs with a bird perched on a thin branch tattooed on each. The bird on the left is pink and red, and the bird on the right is teal and green, both with bold outlines and small leaves along the stems. The composition is framed tightly on the legs and blue star-print platform heels, with a purple backdrop and floral fabric behind.

Neo-trad Botanical Calf Bird Branch Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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The canal froze at the Braunston locks again, so Dad has taken the Marigold down to Oxford on the first thaw and left me minding the boat, the stove and the goat. You will laugh, but I have been painting again. Mrs Pargeter at the chandlery wants her gate-board done in the old roses and castles style, and with the first money I bought a tin of teal and a pot of vermilion, the same colours Gran used on her kettle.

The trouble was the birds. Every time I drew one perched on a branch it came out sad, like something waiting for a train. So on Tuesday I sat on the cabin step with the board across my knees and thought about you on the far side of the county, and the thin ash twig that bent over the towpath where we used to dare each other to jump. I put a vermilion bird on one end and a teal one on the other, each with a fat black outline so the paint would not wander, and I gave them small green leaves along the stalk to keep them company.

Mrs Pargeter came out with her glasses pushed up into her hair and said they looked like they were arguing. I said they were only waiting for the other to finish a sentence. She laughed and paid me in eggs.

Here is the odd part. When the varnish dried I held the board up against the lock gate in the evening light and the teal bird's branch seemed to lean towards the red one, as if the ash had grown that way on purpose. I have written to tell you that, and to say the goat has eaten my glove. Come at Easter. Bring the old tin of gold leaf if you still have it.

Love, Bea