Black and grey realism tattoo of a lion's head above an owl on a forearm, photographed against a wooden floor.

Lion and owl on a forearm

Realism · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A realistic lion's head with a full mane fills the upper part of the forearm, with an owl's face shown below it. The shading is smooth and detailed, with fine strokes in the fur, whiskers and feathers. The piece is entirely black and grey and the forearm is photographed from above, with the tattoo filling most of the frame.

Realism Forearm Lion Owl Mane Whiskers Feather

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The owl had been watching the lambing pen for three nights before the lion finally climbed down from the ridge to ask her what she wanted. "Nothing you'd thank me for," said Mags, shifting on the gatepost, her ear tufts flat against the wind off the moor. "Only that the fox from Thornwick Edge has stopped coming. I'd like to know why."

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Bartholomew had a grey creeping through his mane that winter and a voice gone thin at the edges, so he was not pleased to be asked what he was guarding. He said nothing for a while. Then he padded along the wall to the hollow under the oak, where a lantern had been left burning on a flat stone, and pointed one heavy paw at the mud. Fox prints going in. None coming out.

They sat up together until the frost came. Mags took the high branches and Bartholomew the low wall, and each time the fox's shadow crossed the field one of them gave a call the other could hear. By midnight the shadow had slunk back over the Edge with nothing in its mouth.

At first light Bartholomew settled into the straw, and Mags stayed on the gatepost with her eyes wide open, the way owls keep watch. Nobody in the valley ever saw the two of them speak again, but the sheep were counted every morning, and the count was always right.