Realism tattoo of a shaded grey lion head with red gerbera daisies and an orange sunburst, placed on a person's upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion and red gerbera daisies on a back

Realism · Back · Mixed · Photo

A grey-shaded lion head in a realistic style faces left, with its mane fading into dark shading. Large red gerbera daisies with teal outlines and yellow-green centres overlap the lion, and an orange and red sunburst with spiked rays sits behind its head. The design is set on the upper back against a pale background, with bold colour contrasting the black and grey lion.

Realism Botanical Neo-trad Back Lion Sunburst Flower Sun Mane

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

Dad painted the lion on the bow of the Constance the summer I turned nine, and he swore it was the only thing on the boat that was going to face forward. Everything else, he said, was going somewhere sideways. The lion looked back at the river with a sour sort of patience, its mane ragged where the varnish had run, and every dawn the sun came up behind its head like a wheel of brass.

Keep reading

We lived on the Constance between Oxford and Abingdon, and the lock-keepers knew us by the smell of the paraffin stove. Mum grew gerberas in old paint tins along the gunwale, red as pillar boxes, with green middles like buttons. Dad said they were stubborn flowers, that they needed sun and wouldn't be fussed over. I thought he was talking about himself.

The year the lock at Sandford flooded, the water came up to the second step of our cabin and we moved everything onto the roof. Dad sat with his back against the chimney, saying nothing, and I thought he might give up on us then. Instead he took the tins one by one and tied them to the rail with fishing line, so the blooms faced the sun.

By the time the river dropped, the gerberas had gone to seed and the lion had a crack across its nose. Dad never repainted it. He said a lion who had seen high water deserved to keep a scar. When I think of him now I see the sunrise first, then the flowers, and last of all the lion, looking east as if it had been waiting for us to wake up.