Symmetrical black line drawing of a lion head in an ornamental fine line style with mandala-like patterns in the mane and face, shown on a plain white background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornamental lion head line drawing

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A front-facing, symmetrical lion head drawn in black linework on white. The mane and face are filled with intricate mandala-style patterns, scrollwork and layered petal shapes, with the eyes and nose as the central focal points. The image is monochrome with no shading or tone beyond the line detail.

Fine line Geometric Lion Lion head Mane Mandala Ornament Symmetry Eye

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The Lord Chamberlain wanted the lion folded in half, and he meant it literally. Every thread I laid on the banner of Varrowmere had to answer its twin across the spine of the cloth, or the mirror-makers would send it back to the loom. So I sat with my back to the east window for nine days, drawing the left eye and then letting the right one follow, petal by petal, until no flaw could hide.

Keep reading

The mane was the difficulty. Each scalloped flame had to be lined with a fine mandala of silver wire, and the wire kept tarnishing wherever my breath touched it. Old Ysolde, who taught me the lattice stitch, said the trick was to work from the eyes outward, since a lion looks at what it means to keep and everything else is only hair. I did not believe her until the fourth night, when the gold eyes were set and the whole face turned to meet me across the frame like a neighbour leaning over a wall.

On the last morning I found a hair-thin error in the nose scrollwork, a whorl turned the wrong way. Rather than unpick three days of work, I doubled it, stitching a second spiral beside the first so the pair sat as one ornament. The Chamberlain studied it for a long time and asked whether it was a mistake. I said it was a lion's breath, pulled in two directions at once. He laughed and paid me in full.

The banner hangs now above the gate of Varrowmere. When the wind comes off the salt flats the mane lifts and ripples, and the two halves of the face never quite agree on which way they are looking. I like to think that is the part no one else has noticed, and I have never told anyone about the second spiral.