Colour neo-traditional tattoo of a blue elephant-headed figure with a silver ornate headdress and red ear ornaments, on the upper arm and shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Blue elephant-headed deity on upper arm

Neo-trad · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

A blue elephant-headed figure wearing an ornate grey headdress, with a red dot on its forehead and red and gold ear decorations, fills the upper arm and shoulder. The shading is smooth and soft on the face and trunk, with dark linework defining the headdress and a small om symbol on the trunk. Blue dominates, with red accents and a single white flower at the tip of the trunk on a plain skin background, and the top of a dark garment is visible behind the arm.

Neo-trad Upper arm Shoulder Elephant Deity Headdress Om symbol Flower Trunk

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 snow had shut the high pass twice that winter, and when the carrier's mule balked at the broken bridge below Karsang, Pema had to lead it the last mile herself. The light was going. Ahead, where the path bent round a shelf of black rock, a blue elephant sat on its haunches beside a juniper, a grey crown of beaten silver on its head and a white flower held loosely at the tip of its trunk.

Keep reading

She had heard the stories at every inn along the road. Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, would sit in the path of a traveller who had nothing to offer and ask only for a thing that was nearly worthless. Her uncle called it foolishness. Her mother called it courtesy. Pema had a single dried apricot wrapped in a cloth, and the mule had eaten the rest of the bread at noon.

She bowed, as her mother had taught her, and held out the apricot. The elephant lowered its trunk, took the fruit with surprising delicacy, and blew softly on the mule's nose. The animal stopped shaking. Then the god turned the flower toward the rock, and where the stone had been a moment before there was a narrow stair cut into the cliff, dusted with fresh snow, leading down toward the valley lights.

At the bridge at Karsang the carriers were already shouting. Pema reached the far side before the moon rose, and when she looked back the juniper was only a juniper. The mule, which had never once in its life stood still for a stranger, pressed its warm flank against her shoulder and would not move on until she had said thank you aloud, twice.