Black line tattoo of a standing cat with a raised, curled tail and a collar, placed on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cat with curled tail on upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A single-line black tattoo of a stylised cat walks across the outer upper arm, with its tail rising in a tight curl above its head. The cat has pointed ears, simple almond eyes and a small nose, and a dot marks its collar. The bold, even black linework sits centrally on the arm against a dark top, with no shading or colour.

Upper arm Cat Tail Collar Silhouette Line art

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

Sunday, 14 November. Frost on the tent pegs again and the big top sagging like a wet hat over the field at Ludlow. Mr Halloran counted the takings in the caravan this morning and then counted them again, which is how I knew it was bad. Forty-one pounds for the week. The lion went to a sanctuary in Wales on Thursday, the horses went with the lorry men, and now there is only Pilot, me, and the ringmaster's bad knee.

Keep reading

Pilot is the only one of us who still does the act properly. He walks the length of the rail above the sawdust every evening for the four people who bother to come, tail up like a question mark, the brass bell on his collar ringing once at each step. Nobody claps for cats. Halloran says he is the last thing in the show that still earns its keep, and I suppose that is a compliment of sorts.

Today a man in a green car came to look at the ground. He had a clipboard and a cigarette he didn't light, and he said the council would want the field cleared by spring. Halloran shook his hand. Then the man crouched and offered two fingers to Pilot, who sniffed them, judged them, and walked off towards the tea urn as if the whole deal had been beneath him.

I have packed the costumes into tea chests and written the names of the acts on the lids in pencil, so that somebody, someday, can unpack a little of this. Tonight I left the back flap of the big top open. Pilot went out into the frost with his tail curled high and climbed onto the gate post. He looked back once, the way he does before a difficult step, and I think he is waiting for me to decide whether we are going too.