Two black and grey traditional swallows in flight, one above the other, tattooed on a person's back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two swallows on the back

Traditional · Back · Black and grey · Photo

Two swallows in flight face towards each other, with wings swept up and tails spread. The bold black outlines and soft grey shading give the birds dimension, with lighter highlights on their pale chests. The birds sit against plain, lightly reddened skin, with one slightly higher and to the right of the other.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Danny,

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The swallows are back under the walkway at Cressy House, the same two as last year, or I like to think so. I saw them on Tuesday from the kitchen window, fourteenth floor, which is as close to the sky as your grandad ever wanted to be. They dropped past the concrete lip of the balcony and came up again like they'd been pulled on a string.

The council sent a man round in March to say the nesting spots were a hazard and he'd be putting up netting. I told him swallows don't read notices. He said that was what the netting was for. I gave him a cup of tea and he drank it standing by the sink, looking at the photo of your ship on the fridge, and then he went off without mentioning the netting again.

You said in your last letter the sea has been flat for three weeks and the lads are going soft with it. So here is something to look at. Two birds, always flying in toward each other, the way you and your sister used to run at the middle of the car park. When they swing past the lamp post, the one on the left dips first, every time. I've watched it all afternoon with my tea going cold.

Keep your head down by the rigging and come home by August. Mind the cold off the Cape. Your loving Nan, Irene.

P.S. The netting went up Thursday. They're nesting on the lamp post now.

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