Black and grey realism tattoo of a winged woman in a loose dress on the upper arm, with a feathered wing across the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Winged woman tattoo on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A woman with long hair looks downward, her body partly draped in a loose dress, while a large feathered angel wing spreads across the shoulder and upper back. Soft shading and fine hatched detail give the figure depth, and a floral vine sits higher on the upper back. The palette is entirely black and grey, photographed on a bare back and shoulder against a blurred indoor background.

Realism Upper arm Shoulder Back Angel Wing Woman Feather Flower Vine Dress

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

Dear Nell,

Keep reading

The fair pitched on the common again last night, and you'll not believe what Mrs Garrow did with the rain. She sat in the caravan doorway with the big canvas wing across her knees and sewed every feather back on by lamplight, one at a time, while the rest of us stood about the sawdust pretending we were not watching. Her daughter Lily flies on the rig now, since the wire snapped in Doncaster and took her mother's nerve with it.

I painted the backdrop that season, a woman in a thin grey dress looking down at the crowd as if she were counting their pennies. Mr Ashby said the pose was wrong, that a flyer should look up at the lights. I told him a girl who looks up at the lights is only looking at the drop. Lily looks down. She says it keeps her feet under her.

Last night, after the last house, she climbed the ladder in her mother's wing and stood on the platform with the whole field dark below. She didn't jump. She let the feathers catch the lamp and tipped her head, the way you do when you're listening for a train you know is late. Then she came down, handed me the wing to mend, and said, "Paint them wider next time, Tom. I want to see what I'm missing."

Write back soon. The pitch is Thursday in Ely.

Love, Tom