Realism lion head tattoo on an upper arm, shaded in brown and grey with warm red-brown tones.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion head on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Mixed · Photo

A realistic lion head fills the upper arm, shown in profile-facing front view with the eyes, nose and whiskers clearly rendered. The mane is suggested with loose, feathered strokes that fade into the skin at the edges. The shading is mainly brown and grey, with reddish-brown tones in the mane and muzzle.

Realism Upper arm Lion Mane Portrait

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Eli,

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The lioness went out in the night, and I am writing so you hear it from me before the Hartley men tell it wrong at the Corn Exchange. Dorrie was asleep by the gate of the walled garden when Mr Pask came round with the lantern, and she never woke. Dad always said she had the calmest face of any cat he ever kept. The men who dug her hole said she looked like she was listening for something.

You will remember the portrait Dad had painted on the ticket booth canvas the summer before he died. The sign-writer from Scarborough worked her mane in wet rags of ochre and brown, thinning them at the edges until the canvas showed through, so that when the sun dropped behind the rides her head seemed to rise out of the long grass. Customers used to stop and argue about whether she was looking at them or past them. She was always looking past them, I told them. She was looking at the sea.

Yesterday I took the booth down and rolled the canvas into the cart. Under the lamp in the shed the mane had faded almost to nothing, and only the eyes were left, amber and very steady. I have hung it over the back of the kitchen chair where Dad used to sit. I will not sell it to the travelling men, whatever they offer.

Come home for the funeral on Thursday. Bring your good coat, and bring the brass lantern too. I want to see the light put out properly, the way Dad would have wanted.

Love, Maud