Three photographs of a black and grey wing tattoo with shaded feathers on the inside of a forearm, shown against a black background.

Wing tattoos on three forearms

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

Three forearms are shown stacked one above another against a black background, each with a large feathered wing tattoo running along the forearm towards the wrist. The feathers are rendered in fine black linework with soft grey shading that gives them depth and texture. The composition is a clean studio arrangement with the hands relaxed in a fist or loose grip, and no faces are visible.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The kestrel came back to the balcony rail on Tuesday, the first time since the lift broke in March and the whole block started smelling of bins. I was hanging out the washing when I saw it, sitting on the concrete lip of the fourteenth floor like it had paid for the view. Mrs Okonedo next door says it's the same bird that nests on the cladding above the car park, though I can't see how she'd know one from another.

Then, yesterday, I found a feather on the mat. Grey-brown, longer than my hand, with the barbs all combed in one direction as if someone had drawn them with a very fine pencil. I kept it in the drawer with your birthday card. I should tell you I took the old flat's key back to the council office on the Monday, so the post comes to me now, and there was a letter from the hospital that I opened by mistake. It's nothing bad. They only want you to ring about the appointment.

Dad would have laughed at the feather. He used to say the birds on the estate were the only things in Leeds that ever made it up the stairs without complaining. I think of him when the wind comes round the corner and the washing lifts off the line as if it's trying to leave.

Write back soon. Tell me what the sky looks like over there, and whether it's as flat as they said.

Love, Ania

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