Red and orange lion head tattoo on an upper arm, shown beside a photo of a real lion in long grass with the tattoo design pasted over its head.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion head tattoo on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Colour · Photo

The left panel shows a roaring lion head tattooed on an upper arm, with a mane rendered in red, orange and pink tones and shaded fur. The right panel is a photograph of a maned lion lying in dry grass, with the same tattoo design superimposed over its head. The composition is a side-by-side comparison with the tattoo filling most of the left panel.

Realism Upper arm Lion Lion head Mane Big cat

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nan,

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The lion came back to the cut this morning, or rather, the lion Mr Pask painted on the cabin side came back to us, which is how Mum put it when he climbed down from the roof. He spent three days up there with a brush the size of a cat's tail, and he said the mane had to be the colour of a fox in October: rust and ochre, with a rim of pink where the sun catches it. I thought the bargee's flag had caught fire. Dad said nothing for an hour, then said it was the best thing anyone had put on the boat since his own father's name.

Some of the boys at Coldharbour Lock took the mickey, saying he'd painted a lion because a lion is what Dad turns into at six in the morning before the kettle's on. But past the bend the reeds grew so high that the painted head seemed to be looking out over them, and an old lockkeeper stopped his bike on the towpath and asked if it was for sale. Dad said it wasn't a thing you sold.

Last night I sat on the roof with the tiller tied off and watched the lock lights come on along the water. The lion's eyes caught the lamp from the footbridge and held it, so for a minute he looked like he was roaring at the river and not at anybody. I think that's what Dad wanted, something on the boat that would be loud when the rest of us were quiet.

Love, Jess