Black and grey tattoo of the grinning Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland lying on a tree branch, placed on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Cheshire Cat on a branch on the upper arm

Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A cartoon Cheshire Cat grins widely while stretched along a gnarled tree branch, with its striped tail curling up on the left and a second tail tip rising on the right. The linework is bold and the striped body and branch are built up with grey shading, giving a smooth, solid tonal finish. The design fills the upper arm and is shown in a close crop against a plain skin background.

Upper arm Cheshire cat Cat Grin Tail Alice in wonderland

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You have been the handyman at Gull Point boarding house since the Hendersons went under and left the place to Mrs Pearce, and in all that time the painting above the front parlour sideboard has never once hung straight. Every Monday you lift it and every Monday it sits a finger's width lower on the left. The cat is stretched along a gnarled branch, its striped tail coiled up one side, grinning as if it already knows what the lodgings will cost you.

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On the first wet Tuesday of October you take the picture down to clean the glass. Behind the board someone has pencilled a list in a neat hand: Room Nine, Mr Abernethy, 1931. Room Nine, Miss Vale, 1948. Room Nine, the Ferris boy, 1962. Each name has a tick beside it and a departure date, and every date falls on a day when the tide came over the pier. You read it twice, and when you look up the grin seems wider, the branch seems longer, and the tail on the far side has crept over the edge of the wood.

Mrs Pearce is in the kitchen peeling potatoes for a couple from Leeds who asked for Room Nine without knowing why. You stand in the hall with the frame held against your chest. "Leave it be," she says without turning round. "It only wants company on the lower floor." You think about the couple's suitcases on the landing and the names on the back of the board that you have not yet had the nerve to wipe away.

You hang the painting on its nail and it sits straight for once. When you finally go to bed you hear a soft click from the parlour, and in the morning the grin is pointed at the stairs and the tail has wrapped itself twice round the frame.