Deer and forest on upper arm
Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo
The tattoo shows a realistic deer head in profile, with large antlers rising behind it and dark trees fading into the background. The linework and shading are soft and detailed, with strong contrast in the fur and antlers and lighter tones across the face. A tattooed banner along the lower edge of the design reads RIP JOEY.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Joey Pryce never once shot the big stag on Harrow Fell, though the whole valley knew it was standing in the larch wood like a church door. He said a beast that old had earned the right to be wrong about us. I told him that was daft talk for a man who held a rifle licence the same as I did.
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We walked that ridge every November for nineteen years. He carried the flask and I carried the grudges. The last autumn his chest was bad, and he sat on the stile at the top of the plantation while I went on alone with the glass. Mist came off the bog like something poured. I saw the antlers first, a grey crown above the bracken, then the soft brown face turning to look at me as if I were the one who had arrived late.
I didn't raise the rifle. I told him that evening in the Crown, and he laughed until he coughed and asked whether the stag had looked guilty. I said it had looked like it was waiting for someone. He nodded as though that settled a debt between them.
The lads cut his name into a slate for the churchyard, but I had the banner done the way he would have wanted, plain letters and no flourish. The week after the funeral I went up alone. The stile was empty, the wind smelled of peat, and out in the trees the stag stood with his head high. He didn't run.
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