Colour tattoo of a white maneki-neko lucky cat with a raised paw and gold coin, in a traditional style, on the calf.

Maneki-neko lucky cat on a calf

Traditional · Calf · Colour · Photo

A white maneki-neko lucky cat sits centred on the leg, with its right paw raised and its left paw resting on a gold coin marked with a black Japanese character. It wears a red collar, a green bib and a brass bell, with purple shading and yellow and black spotted accents. Bold black outlines define the design against the skin, with flat colour fills and minimal shading.

Traditional Japanese Calf Maneki-neko Lucky cat Cat Coin Bell Collar Paw

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The cat lived in the window of Hallam's newsagent on platform two, wedged between a tin of boiled sweets and a stack of racing papers, and for eleven years it had waved at the 7.42 as if the train owed it the fare. Its coin never moved. Mr Hallam was clear about that. The gold disc under its left paw was the only thing in the shop he would not sell, lend or put on the lottery, and when a boy once tried to nick it for a bet, Mr Hallam chased him as far as the ticket barrier in his carpet slippers.

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I started working the counter on Saturdays the winter his knees gave out. Most mornings the platform was empty except for a man with a flask and a woman feeding pigeons, and the cat's bell chimed every time the door opened, a small brass sound under the hiss of the coffee machine. Mr Hallam taught me to dust the cat, to check its batteries before the frost got into the works, and to say good morning to it, which I did, feeling a fool, until the day I didn't.

The council sold the building in March. On the last Saturday, Mr Hallam pressed the cat into my hands with the coin still under its paw and said the trains would keep coming whether or not anyone was there to see them off. I carried it home on the 7.42, which I had never once caught in my life, and set it on my windowsill facing the street. Nothing waved back. So I lifted its paw myself and held it up until the bell on its collar rang, and I left it there, a little tilted, for whoever passed next.