Full colour Japanese sleeve tattoo on an upper arm and forearm, showing foo dogs, peonies and waves against a plain wall.

Japanese lion and peony full arm sleeve

Japanese · Shoulder · Colour · Photo

A full arm sleeve shows two foo dog style lions, one on the upper arm and one on the forearm, with red and purple peonies, green leaves and grey wave patterns. The lions have shaded grey bodies with blue, gold and cream detailing and dotted patterns, and the outlines are bold and dark. The bright ink contrasts with the black shirt and pale wall behind the arm.

Japanese Shoulder Upper arm Forearm Lion Peony Wave Leaf Cloud Dot

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

You are the lion who stays on the lower step, because the upper one has been claimed by the peonies, and peonies are vain about their hour. Tonight the rain has come off the canal in a grey sheet and pooled on the tiles of the old fishmonger's arcade, where nobody has sold anything since the war except the pigeons, who still buy.

Keep reading

Your partner watches the far end of the arcade with his mouth open, his gold mane shaking drips from the awning. He has a theory about the waves. He says the sea is only ever trying to climb the stairs, and that if either of you blinks the tide will come in over the bins and take the whole street. You have told him the sea has no interest in bins. He has told you that you know nothing about the sea, which is fair, since you were carved in a yard in a city you have never seen, by a man whose hands smelled of pine resin.

At two the bus lights go dark on the corner. A girl in a borrowed coat comes down the steps with a paper bag of chips and stops in front of you, close enough that you can see her breath, and she says the thing people always say, which is that you look fierce. You do not. You look like a dog who has been asked to hold a door open for a very long time. She laughs anyway and leaves a chip on the step between your paws.

Your partner eats it the moment she turns the corner. You let him. Dawn is still a long way off, the peonies are already opening their red hands to the first grey light, and you are still here, counting the drops, guarding nothing in particular, which may be the job.