Flat black, red and white drawing of a bear paw with five curved claws above a snarling bear face, in a bold Northwest Coast style.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bear paw with claws and bear face design

Mixed · Flash

The image shows a bold, flat design of a bear paw with five curved black claws, each with a red inner panel and a black pad. Below the paw sits a stylised bear face with an open mouth showing teeth, a red tongue and a second bear head in profile. The design uses solid black linework with red and white accents on a white background.

Bear Paw Claw Animal

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ines,

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The bear came down to the smokehouse again last night, the big one with the torn ear, and this time it did not take the fish. It stood up on its hind legs at the open door and roared at the lamp until Mattu threw the bucket of creek water over it. I watched from the loft. Its mouth was red inside, the same red Father mixed from ochre and fish oil, and the teeth caught the moonlight like the lines he used to score into cedar.

Mattu says it is a warning, that we have taken too many from the creek this summer. I told him nobody takes anything that is not first offered. He did not like that, and he went off to sulk with the nets.

This morning the prints ran in the mud all the way to the boundary cedars. Five claws to each print, each one ending in a round black pad, and beside every one a small red wedge where someone had pressed a thumb into the clay. I followed them past the drying racks and found the bear had stopped at the old carved tree, the one with the second head in profile and the jaw wide open. The prints ended there, square in front of the carving, as if it had walked up to the tree and sat down to speak to its own face.

Father cut that carving the year you were born. I think the bear has come to check that we still remember what we promised. I am leaving a salmon at the stump tonight. Come home before the snow, and bring your knife. We will need to carve the thing properly this time.