Black and grey tattoo of a lion head inside a dreamcatcher with hanging feathers, placed on the side of the ribs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion and dreamcatcher on the ribs

Realism · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A lion's head in profile sits inside a circular dreamcatcher with beaded rings, and long feathers hang below and fan out from the mane. The linework and shading are fine and detailed, with soft grey tones across the mane and feathers. The design is shown in black ink on the side of a torso, with the lower edge of dark trousers visible at the bottom of the frame.

Realism Geometric Ribs Lion Lion head Dreamcatcher Feather Mane Bead Swirl

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The rain came in sideways again this morning and took the awning off Stall Nine, so I've spent the afternoon drying out a box of silver rings I was meant to have sold on Saturday. Mr Okafor says the stall is cursed. I told him it's only Yorkshire. Anyway, you asked about the old man with the feathers, so here is the rest of him.

He comes on Thursdays, when the market is half empty and the gulls have given up. He lays a dreamcatcher on the oilcloth every week, each one bigger than the last, and every one has the same lion caught in the middle of the hoop, head turned to the left as if something behind him is worth a growl. He won't sell me the lion. He says a lion like that wants carrying, not hanging up, and when I laughed he didn't.

Last week the wind got under the oilcloth and the feathers went everywhere: grey ones off a dead pigeon, a hawk's tail I'd never seen before. I chased a long one across the car park in my slippers. When I brought it back he took it without looking, pinned it to the hoop with a twist of wire, and said, "Mane first, then the tail. Always the mane first."

I think about that a lot now. This morning he didn't come. The hoop was still in his crate, unfinished, with one feather hanging loose where he'd meant to thread it. I've put it in my coat pocket. Come up at Easter and I'll show you, and you can tell me whether he meant the lion or the wind.

Love, Nell