Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Bold black cat outline design

Black and grey · Flash

A bold, stylised cat in profile, with pointed ears, a long curved outline and three whisker strokes on the face. The linework is solid black with tapering strokes of varying thickness and no shading. The design is shown on a plain white background, with the body curving down to a tail-like tip at the lower left.

Cat Whiskers Silhouette

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mrs Okonedo's sign had been waiting on the workbench since Tuesday, and Dennis still hadn't made the cat. He had the lettering for the pet shop done in gold leaf, every serif tidy, but the cat at the top kept coming out like a dropped glove. Old Harold, who had painted fairground wagons in Hull before his hands went, watched him try for the fourth time from the stool by the window.

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"You're drawing it," Harold said. "Stop drawing it. Load the brush, look at where the cat is going to be, and then let it go in one pull."

Dennis loaded the brush with black enamel, wiped it on the rag, and thought about the cat that had lived under the back step of the shop when he was small, the one that sat with its tail curled round its feet and turned its head only when it wanted something. He didn't think about it for long. He pulled the stroke from the nose up over the brow, let the line thicken where the ear would be, dragged it tight and sharp at the point, then ran it down the back in one long curve that thinned to nothing at the tail.

Harold made a noise that might have been approval. "Whiskers now, three of them, and no more than that. Cats don't need the lot."

When the paint dried, Mrs Okonedo came in with her reading glasses on a chain and stood under the sign for a long time without saying anything. Then she laughed, a short surprised bark, and said the cat looked like it had just heard someone come in and was deciding whether to bother. Dennis said that was about right, and Harold said nothing, but he tapped the workbench twice with one knuckle, which was as close as he came to praise.