The eyebrows.

I know that the birds on Harry’s chest having “eyebrows” is old news. I also know that anyone who thinks Harry and Louis are a couple doesn’t think so only because the birds have eyebrows. But I do know that it’s a part of it, at least for some people.

So I wanna talk about the eyebrows.

Generally the argument goes that the swallow on Harry’s right has an arched line over the eye (where an eyebrow would be), and the swallow on Harry’s left has a flat line over the eye. You can see that here!

Some people say that this is a reference to Harry and Louis’ eyebrows. The evidence for this is that Louis’ eyebrows are more naturally arched, and Harry’s are more naturally flat. You will see pictures like this to demonstrate this.

Personally, I think this is a very strange leap in logic to assume that the difference in the birds is to show people’s eyebrows. Especially because you could find pictures that show Louis with flat brows and Harry with curved. But regardless, let’s talk about the actual reason why the birds look different. The one on Harry’s left is actually a cover up.

Just a few months before getting the swallow’s tattooed Harry got a banner that said “Love”.

The short amount of time between those tattoos is important here because as tattoos age they get easier to cover up. When tattoos are new, and especially when they are done in black ink, simply putting more tattoo ink over the top does not fully cover the tattoo. You will always be able to see the old tattoo underneath. To counteract this, artists will often incorporate lines from the old tattoo into the design for the new one so that they fit together, therefore disguising the old design more effectively. I know this because I have a few coverup tattoos myself, but here is an explanation by a tattoo artist as well.

Here’s why that matters for Harry’s swallows.The swallow on Harry’s right is drawn much like a traditional swallow tattoo like the one below.

The swallow on Harry’s left looks different in several ways besides the “eyebrow”. The tail feathers are much bigger, and the blank space between the wing and tail has been filled with more wing to cover up the Love banner underneath.

But let’s get to the reason we’re all here…the eyebrow. In the banner picture you can see the shape of the tail of the banner. When you look at the swallow you can see that the line over the bird’s eye follows the same shape. In the picture below, you can see the banner through the coverup. The “eyebrow” was changed to follow this line on the banner. Had it not been, you would be able to see very clearly the line flowing in the opposite direction right through the bird’s eye.

That’s all. That’s the reason. There was no strange attempt to represent Harry and Louis in bird form (but only show that through the bird’s eyebrows). It was just to make the cover-up more successful.