Black and grey realism tattoos showing a spread-wing design on the stomach, a realistic animal sleeve on the arm and a rose on the back of the hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Winged design on stomach and realistic arm sleeve

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A person sits on a dark carpeted staircase, wearing grey shorts over black leggings and black trainers, with the midriff bare. A large spread-wing design sits across the lower stomach, and a realistic sleeve covers the upper arm and forearm, including what appears to be a lion and a rose across the hand. The shading is smooth and greyscale, with strong contrast in the feathers and fur, and the overhead angle frames the tattoos against the grey fabric and stairs.

Realism Upper arm Forearm Hand Other Wing Lion Rose Sleeve Animal Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The customs hall at Hollin Pass smells of wet wool and the coffee they boil in a tin pot, and I have been sitting on the bench beneath the grey photograph of the old lion for three hours. They say the stone beast was carved the year the bridge fell, and that a rose grew out of its paw by the spring. Nobody has cut it back. The guards pretend not to see it, the same way they pretend not to see the boy who sells paper feathers at the turnstile.

Yesterday a man in a long coat asked me what I was carrying, and I told him only letters, which was true. Your letters, Tomasz, all forty of them, tied with the string Mother used for the bread. He turned each one over slowly, as if the ink might lift off the page and fly. The officer's pen tapped the stamps. Outside, the wind was throwing grey feathers from the poplars against the glass, and for a moment the whole hall looked like the inside of a bird.

Here is what I decided. I will walk the last kilometre to the far gate tomorrow, past the lion, and leave the bundle in the hollow under its paw where the rose grows thickest. If you come for it, you will know the way. If you do not, the rain will do the reading.

Your sister, Ilse