Colour tattoo of a maneki-neko lucky cat holding a teal fish on the forearm, outlined in bold black linework.

Maneki-neko cat on a forearm

Japanese · Forearm · Colour · Photo

A raised-paw maneki-neko cat sits on the forearm, with a red collar and bell, and clutches a teal fish. The cat is drawn with bold black outlines and simple flat fills of orange and peach, with whiskers and closed eyes marked in fine lines. The tattoo is centred on a plain skin background, with a striped bedspread and a white cat resting beside the arm.

Japanese Traditional Forearm Maneki-neko Cat Lucky cat Fish Bell Collar

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Hush now, down in the kingdom of Vell that never was, and keep your hands out of the fish basket, for the cat on the harbour wall is listening. Her name was Orrin's Tabby, though the bakers called her Beckoning Mab, for she sat on the sill above the harbour gate of Pellow and lifted one paw whenever a ship came home with its hold full. Nobody in Pellow thought much of the paw. The fishermen put it down to the light off the water.

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Then came the winter the herring stopped. Old Tam Varrow, who had mended nets since before my grandmother was born, went down to the quay each dawn and swore he could hear the sea weeping under the boards. He begged the cat for a catch. She only blinked, eyes shut tight as walnuts, and went on washing her ear. So Tam did what a sensible man does when he has nothing else left. He stole a fish from the tax-man's barrel and laid it at her feet.

The cat looked at the fish, then at Tam, then at the teal-coloured tide creeping under the gate. She took the fish up in both paws, tucked it against her red collar, and walked straight into the water. The little bell rang once, clear as a christening. When the mist lifted, the harbour was black with herring, and Tam's nets were groaning under the weight.

Mind this part, because it matters. The bell only rings for a debt. Tam paid his back, every penny, and the tax-man got his fish reckoned to the last scale. Ever since, the fishermen of Pellow have left something small on the sill each morning, and the cat, bless her, has never once asked what it was. Now fetch me the blanket. My own back is as stiff as that old wall.