Two colour neo-traditional tattoos side by side, a lioness with flowers on the thigh and a lion with a swirling mane on the upper arm.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lioness and lion neo-trad tattoos

Neo-trad · Thigh · Colour · Photo

The left image shows a lioness wearing a yellow and pink flower crown, with turquoise eyes and a dark blue and purple mane edged with pink scalloped detail, on the outer thigh. The right image shows a stylised lion with a richly curled golden mane and a teal background shape, on the upper arm. Both use bold outlines, saturated colour and flat, graphic shading.

Neo-trad Thigh Upper arm Lion Flower Mane Leaves

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tobias,

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You will think I have been at the cider again, but I swear on Mam's grave that the lioness came out of the beeches at Hollin Cross on Tuesday, just as the bells were going for Evensong. She walked the lane like she owned the parish, with a crown of poppies and marigolds tangled above her ears and a band of red berries round her brow. Her mane was the dark blue of the wood at night, with little pink scallops along the bottom like the hem of a good petticoat. Mrs Abbott fainted into the nettles. Nobody screamed, which I think surprised the lioness more than anything.

Pa says she is a travelling beast from a menagerie that got loose at the coast, but the carter swears she was here before the church was built. The old men have decided she belongs to the wood, and nobody has taken a shotgun to her, which says a lot about this village. We leave the back gate open and a saucer of milk by the stile. Each morning the saucer is licked clean and a lock of gold hair is left on the stone, which Ada has been pressing into her hymn book.

Last week a second lion came, bigger, with a mane like the curls on a brass candlestick. He sat on the far side of the brook for an afternoon while the lioness watched from under the oaks, and then he was gone. Ada says they are courting. Ada says a lot of things.

Come home for the harvest supper. Bring your good boots, and if you meet the lioness on the road, don't run. She has been very patient with us, and I think she is waiting for someone to notice the flowers.

Your loving sister, Nell