Two black and grey swallow tattoos on the backs of hands clasped together over a grey tweed jacket.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two swallows on clasped hands

Traditional · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

Two hands are clasped together at the waist, each showing a small swallow in flight on the back of the hand. The linework is dark and defined, with grey shading giving the wings and body some depth. The tweed jacket, silver rings, beaded bracelet, wristwatch and belt sit around the hands in muted grey and brown tones.

Traditional Hand Swallow Bird Wristwatch

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The swallows came back to the yard the same week the flour sacks were restacked, and Maud Pike counted them from the back step before the lamps were lit. Two pairs, she decided, though one of the pairs kept quarrelling over the same ledge above the flue. The air still smelled of cold stone and yesterday's rye, and the sky over the chimney pots had gone the colour of weak tea.

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Her brother Teddy came through the side gate with his collar up and a dusting of white on his boots. "Inspector's coming Thursday," he said, nodding at the nest wedged under the eaves. "You'll have to let Mr Hale knock that down." Maud didn't turn round. "They eat the midges that come off the proving bowls. Ask anyone who's worked nights here." Teddy laughed through his nose, the way their father used to when he had lost an argument he meant to win the next day.

She went in to light the ovens. The first tray of loaves went onto the peel, the crust still tacky under her fingers, and she slid them home one after another until the brick glowed orange at the mouth. When she pulled the vent cord, a draught came up the flue and the nest rocked. Teddy swore softly, then went quiet.

By the time the window over the yard turned from black to pearl, the swallows were out, diving low over the cobbles and rising again in one long stitched line. Maud watched them cut across the lane and over the roofs, and thought that if Mr Hale wanted the nest gone, he would have to come up the ladder himself.