Black ink tattoo of a seated cat seen from behind, filled with swirling ornamental linework, on a forearm against a dark background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornamental cat silhouette on a forearm

Blackwork · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows a seated cat in profile from behind, with its tail curling round the base. The outline is a solid black silhouette filled with swirling scroll and paisley-like linework in black. The tattoo is shown in black ink on pale skin against a dark background, centred in the frame.

Blackwork Forearm Cat Silhouette Swirl Scrollwork Tail Ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Hannah,

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The road over the tops has been shut since Tuesday, so you will have to forgive the state of this paper. Mrs Pryce has been drying sheets over the range and the whole kitchen smells of wet wool and carbolic. Our guests are three drovers, a tax man who cannot stop complaining, and a young couple from Leeds who sleep until noon.

The cat came in with the snow on the second night. I had never seen her before. She sat on the settle with her back to the room, her tail wound round her feet like a rope someone had coiled and forgotten, and she did not turn once when the lamps were lit. Tom the ostler swore she was a stray from the mill. Mrs Pryce said she was no stray, look at her markings, and I thought she was right. The black on her was not fur at all but a pattern of curls and scrolls, like the ironwork on the old gate at Hollin Farm, or the frost ferns that grow on the inside of the scullery window.

On the third morning the drift against the back door had reached the sill, and I went out with the shovel. The cat was on the step, sitting exactly as she had on the settle, waiting. When I opened the door she went past me and straight down the passage to the cellar stairs, and I followed because there was nothing else to do. At the bottom, behind the barrels, a flagstone had cracked and a thread of warm air came up through it. Three kittens, blind and pink, were pressed against each other in the gap.

I have not told the tax man. I have told only you. The cat sits on the settle now, back to the room, and the snow has stopped, and I think by the weekend the road will be open. I am not sure I want it to be.

Yours, Nell