Lion head with flowing mane
Fine line · Black and grey · Flash
A front-facing lion's head with half-closed eyes, a broad nose and a textured muzzle, drawn on a plain white background. The fur is rendered with fine, dense hatched and stippled linework, with the mane falling in long strands that taper into a single point at the bottom. The image is entirely in black and grey with strong contrast and no colour.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
You are the one who brings the lion up from the hold, because the sailors will not go down there since the storm off Cyrene. The beast has been sick with salt water for four days, and its mane hangs in wet ropes that drip onto the planks with a sound like a slow clock. Keep the lead rope short. Do not hold its gaze for long, though the lids are heavy and it looks more weary than cruel.
Keep reading
The agent from Ostia has promised the arena at Puteoli a beast that will fight in the spring games, and he has already spent the silver he was paid for the passage. Tell him nothing about the three goats that went overboard, or the deckhand who went after them. The lion has eaten nothing since. Each morning its head sinks lower, and the water running from its beard traces a thin line down to the dust of the quay, where the wind takes it.
On the last morning in harbour the sun burns through the fog and the mane dries in the warmth, lifting strand by strand until it is the colour of old bronze. You unclip the rope. The lion does not walk to the gangplank. It stands a long moment at the edge of the wood, then lowers its great head to the water pooled in the gutter of the quay and drinks, slow and certain, as if it had only been waiting for permission to be thirsty.
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