Black and grey geometric lion head tattoo with dotwork shading in the mane and vertical script beside it, on an upper arm.

Geometric lion head on upper arm

Geometric · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A faceted lion head in profile fills the left side of the design, with its mane built from angular outlined shapes and stippled dotwork shading. A vertical line runs beside it, and a column of small script lettering sits to the right. The tattoo is in black ink only, shown on a bare upper arm against a dark top.

Geometric Dotwork Upper arm Lion Lion head Mane Script Lettering Geometric shape Line

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas,

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The new lens came up from Leith on Tuesday in eleven crates, and the carter swore at every step of the stair. Mr Ferrier had it unpacked on the landing before I'd got my boots off. It is cut like nothing I have seen, every pane a shallow prism, and when the lamp is lit the beam breaks into angled blades that sweep across the water like the mane of some great beast standing on the rock. The men from the council say it throws light forty miles on a clear night. I have stopped asking them what they mean by clear.

Mother's old brass plate is still on the kitchen wall, the one with the lion stamped in the middle. I took it down to polish and found the dots of the engraving had worn to a fine grey stipple, so I went over them with a needle, one point at a time, the way Father taught us to do the bell fittings. It took me three evenings. Every time I looked up the light had turned again, and the lion's face came and went across the whitewash.

Here is the thing I want to tell you. Last night the fog came in thick as wool and the lamp was all we had. I climbed up to check the wick and saw a ship's boy standing on the foreshore, staring up. He could not have seen the keeper, only the light, but he lifted his hand as the beam passed over him, as if he were greeting a neighbour. I suppose that is what the lion is for. Come home at Christmas and I will show you the plate. Mind the stair. It still has a loose tread on the seventh step.

Your brother, Alec