Black line-work tattoo of a lion's head with the word Courage in script and DEAR HEART in capitals below, on the forearm of a person with long auburn hair.

Lion and courage lettering on a forearm

Fine line · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a lion's head in loose, sketchy black outline, with the mane drawn as flowing strokes. Above it, the word Courage is written in a cursive script, with DEAR HEART in spaced capital letters beneath. The ink is solid black with no shading or colour, and the forearm is shown against a white slatted background with the wearer's face out of frame.

Fine line Lettering Forearm Lion Courage Script Lettering Mane

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Janet Pryce found the lion's head in a bin bag behind the stage curtain at Ashgrove Primary, three days before the reunion dinner. Twelve years had passed since the last Christmas play, and the mane had gone grey with dust. Someone had drawn a moustache on its muzzle in biro. She sat on the edge of the stage with a needle between her teeth and began working loose the knot in the left ear.

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Dev Okafor came in from the car park with two bottles of cheap prosecco and found her there. "You're not still doing costumes," he said. "Somebody has to. Mrs Hatch made the whole hall cry the year you were the lion and the rest of us were trees." He lowered himself down beside her, knees cracking. They had been the only two in Year Six who never cared who got the lead, and it was the first time either of them had admitted it out loud.

The reunion invitation had asked everyone to bring a memory. Janet had brought a lion. Dev leaned forward and read the words still lettered on the old placard propped against the wall, COURAGE, DEAR HEART, in a teacher's wobbly capitals. "She said that to me the week my dad went," he said. "Didn't explain it. Just said it, like a spell, and sent me back to my seat."

Janet tied off the thread, turned the lion to the light, and smoothed the mane flat with her thumb. The stitches held. For a moment the old felt face looked up at them both as if it had been waiting all this time to speak.