Black and grey realism tattoo of a male lion and a lioness side by side on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion and lioness portrait on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a male lion with a full mane in profile, with a lioness positioned in front of him looking off to the side. The shading is smooth and detailed, with fine strands of fur and whiskers rendered in greys and deep blacks. The design fills a vertical panel of the upper arm against a dark background.

Realism Upper arm Lion Big cat Mane Whiskers

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

Sit closer, you, where the wind can't get at your neck. This is the keep at Carrow Mell, and the stone lying fallen across the moat was once the great gate. Above it, when there was still a roof, a pair of lions were cut into the lintel. Nobody remembers who carved them. The old bailiff said the mason was paid in bread and ale and went home to drink himself into the ground.

Keep reading

The male lion was called Oswin by the children, because he had a mane like a bishop's hood and a face that looked permanently sorry for itself. The lioness had no name at all. She was the one who went down to the water in the evenings, past the broken portcullis, out to where the reeds grew thick in the marsh. Oswin would stand on the wall and watch her go, and he never once followed. The steward swore he heard him growl at the herons.

One winter the river froze, and the lioness did not come back up the bank. Oswin walked the length of the curtain wall three times a night, roaring at the frost. On the fourth night he went down himself, through the gate that had no gate, and the watchmen heard the ice crack and then nothing. In spring they found the two of them lying side by side in the reeds, her head turned away towards the far bank, his turned back towards the castle, as though he had been looking over his shoulder the whole way.

So when the masons came to mend the lintel, they left the carving as it was. The lion's face stays set towards the lioness, and her eyes stay on the open road. Mind your footing on those steps. The tale is done, and the wind has found your neck regardless.