Watercolour-style hummingbird tattoo in pink, blue, yellow and green on the side of a ribcage.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Watercolour hummingbird on the side ribs

Ribs · Colour · Photo

A hummingbird in mid-flight faces right, with its long beak, outstretched wings and tail-like feathers drawn in soft, blended washes. Black speckles and fine dark outlines define the wing edges and the body, while the colour fades into the skin in places. The bird sits diagonally across the frame against a plain skin background, with a grey fabric edge at the lower left.

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mind the guy ropes, the cold's come up off the field and I've only the one lantern. Right, where was I? Ah, the hummingbird. Forty years ago the Marvell Brothers' show was down to three wagons and a tent with more patches than canvas, and the only act still paying its way was Dora Fenn, who painted her face and sat in a glass box twelve hours a day pretending to be a wonder.

Keep reading

One wet morning a bird came in under the flap, no bigger than a thimble, and hung in the air over her box as though it had read the bills. Dora had never seen one close. Nobody in Ashby had. Its back was green as a bottle, its throat the pink of a boiled sweet, and every feather looked as if someone had dropped watercolours onto it and let them run before they dried. The clowns swore it was a trick. The strongman swore it was a trick with a wire. Only Dora kept still enough for it to settle on her finger, and she said afterwards that it weighed less than the rain on her sleeve.

The Brothers sold the bird to a dealer from Leicester for the price of a new canvas. Dora watched him cage it. That night she cut the cord, opened the tent flap and stood aside, and the little thing went straight up through the smoke of the lamps and out over the hedges, and she thought, well, that's that.

But it came back the next evening, and the evening after, and each time it hung in the air beside the nail on the caravan door where she hung her lantern, as if it were waiting to be asked in. The Brothers sold the tent in the autumn. Dora kept the lantern. On still nights, if you stand where the ring used to be, you may see a coloured thing hover over the grass a moment, looking for a box that isn't there any more, and then off it goes towards the sea. Mind the step on your way out.

More like this

Realistic colour tattoo of a hummingbird in flight on the calf, with green and blue head and body, pink wings and a blue and purple tail.
Hummingbird in flight on a calf
Colour tattoo of a hummingbird in flight with green, blue and purple feathers and soft purple watercolour splashes, on the side of a ribcage.
Hummingbird with watercolour splashes on ribs
Colour realism style tattoo of a hummingbird in flight in pink, purple, blue and orange on the upper arm, with black outlines on the tail feathers.
Hummingbird in flight on an arm
Colour tattoo of a green and purple hummingbird beside pink trumpet flowers and black swirling vine linework, on skin in a neo-traditional botanical style.
Hummingbird and pink flowers on upper back
Colourful watercolour-style hummingbird tattoo in blue, purple, pink and yellow on the left side of a person's ribs, with a black top visible above.
Watercolour hummingbird on the ribs
Colour tattoo of a hummingbird in flight with a swirling tail, shaded in red, orange and yellow with teal edging, on skin.
Hummingbird with swirling tail
Colour tattoo of a blue and green hummingbird with outlined stars and swirls on the upper back.
Hummingbird with stars on upper back
Black and grey realism tattoo of a swallow in flight with spread wings, placed on the upper chest near the shoulder.
Realistic swallow in flight on upper chest
Black and grey traditional swallow tattoo in flight, with bold outlines and shaded wings, on the side of the ribs.
Swallow in flight on the side ribs
Colour traditional tattoo of a swallow in flight with black and grey wings, orange body and red and yellow accents, on pale skin.
Traditional swallow in flight
Colour tattoo of a bird in flight with teal wings and an orange breast, sketched in loose linework on the upper torso.
Flying bird with teal wings and orange breast
Colour tattoo of a geometric sparrow perched on a branch, in purple, blue and pink tones, on the lower back.
Geometric sparrow on a branch

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.