Black and grey tattoo of a lion's head with a full mane and two shaded roses, on the upper arm and shoulder, with script above it.

Lion head and roses on upper arm

Traditional · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A black and grey lion's head, shown front on with a full, flowing mane, sits above two shaded roses at the base of the design. The lion's face uses fine hatched linework and soft grey shading around the eyes, nose and muzzle, while the roses use bold outlines with layered petals. The tattoo is photographed in natural indoor light on the upper arm and shoulder, with partial script visible above it.

Traditional Realism Upper arm Shoulder Lion Mane Rose Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The stone lion at Hollin Gate had been asleep so long that moss had grown thick in its mane, and the carters said its eyes followed a load if the carter was carrying something he ought not to be. Nobody crossed there without leaving a coin in the crack under its chin. Bread went on the step for the foxes, and in June someone always pushed a red rose into the mortar at its feet, though nobody could say who started it.

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Tomas Haller came down the pass in the first snow with four mules and a load of salt he had not paid for. He stopped where the road narrowed and the lion's head hung over him like a black cloud, and he found he had no coin left. He had spent it on dice and on his brother's burial. So he sat on the cart and waited for the lion to take what it wanted.

The stone did not speak. The wind did, pulling through the mane. Tomas took the tally stick from his coat, the notched hazel where he had cut every debt he owed to every man in the valley, and he pressed it into the crack where the coins went. It was the only thing he owned that anyone else wanted. The stick sank into the stone as though the mountain had been waiting for it. The gate creaked open, and four mules walked through with the salt.

By spring two new roses had come up at the foot of the gate, black at the heart and heavy with frost, growing from the old June rose the children had planted. The carters say the cart feels no lighter when they cross now, though the salt is still there. Tomas says he cannot remember what he owed. He only remembers the roses.