Black and grey realism sleeve tattoo on an upper arm and forearm, showing butterflies, a daisy, a woman's face, elephants on a savanna and leopard spots.

Black and grey realism sleeve with savanna and leopard

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A full arm sleeve seen from behind, with butterflies, daisies and leaves near the shoulder, a woman's face partly framed by flowers, and a savanna scene with acacia trees and elephants. Lower down the forearm, leopard-print patterns and a leopard's head blend into the wrist. The work uses fine realistic shading and soft grey tones throughout, with no colour ink.

Realism Botanical Upper arm Forearm Butterfly Daisy Flower Leaves Woman Face Elephant Leopard Leopard print

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

The leopard has been back at the bait station three nights running, and Wanjiru swears it is the female with the notch in her left ear, the one we named Mama Kiboko because she never once ran from the lorry. I have stopped arguing with her. You left in such a hurry in March that I never told you the rest of what happened at the waterhole below the old lugga, so here it is while the kettle takes its time.

Keep reading

The elephants came down in the dry, eleven of them, led by a matriarch with one broken tusk. A young bull got his back foot stuck in the mud at the edge, and for an hour the whole herd stood in a ring around him, trumpeting at us every time we moved the Land Rover closer. Wanjiru sat in the cab with the engine off and sang under her breath. When he finally pulled free, the matriarch laid her trunk along his flank and they walked away together through the acacias, the flat-topped ones that look as if they were ruled against the sunset.

The butterflies were the strangest part. Swallowtails, dozens of them, lifting off the dead thorn tree by the road as though someone had opened a book in the wind. I thought of you then, and of the drawing you made me the summer before you went to the city, the one with daisies climbing the schoolroom wall. I have kept it in the biscuit tin with the old postage stamps.

Come home for the new year if you can. The rains should break by then and the grass will be taller than the children. Bring the leopard drawings with you, and we will pin them in the kitchen beside the window, where the morning light is good. Mama Kiboko will not mind if we borrow her a little longer. Your loving aunt, Esther.