Two black and grey plague doctor tattoos, one on the upper arm with a bird on the shoulder and a dotted moon, and one on the forearm, both in blackwork and dotwork style.

Two plague doctor tattoos in black and grey

Blackwork · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The image shows two tattoos of plague doctor figures in top hats and beaked masks. The left design on the upper arm has bold outlines, solid black areas, a perched bird and a stippled moon behind the figure, while the right design on the forearm uses fine stippled shading and dark tones. Both are rendered entirely in black ink and grey shading against plain backgrounds.

Blackwork Dotwork Upper arm Forearm Bird Moon Top hat Cloak Necklace

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Brother Anselm,

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The moon has been full four nights running, and the bell at Saint Vell has not stopped since Lammas. You asked in your last letter whether the physician from Lyon has truly come up the valley with his beaked mask and his waxed cloak. He has. He arrived on the feast of the Holy Cross with a crow on his shoulder, and I confess the sight of it at the lych gate frightened the novices more than the sickness has.

He will not enter the infirmary without his bundle of dried lavender and his little silver bell, which he rings once at every threshold, slowly, as if counting the dead. He sleeps in the stable with the bird perched on the saddle. Brother Oswin says the crow was the physician's only companion on the road from Avignon, and that it has never once been seen to eat.

Last night I went out to find him. He stood in the cloister garden under a moon so pale it seemed dusted with chalk, and he was writing something on a slate with his gloved finger. I asked what it was. He said it was the names of those he had seen before the bell rang for them, so that someone might remember the order they went in. Then he turned, and the crow turned with him, and I found I had nothing to say.

Write to me soon. Tell me whether the river mills still run, and whether you have found a boy to carry the water. I will keep the infirmary door barred until the moon wanes.

Yours in the Lord, Brother Matthias