Black and grey paw print tattoo filled with lace-like lattice and mandala patterns, with dotwork dangles, on the side of the ribs.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornamental paw print on the side ribs

Dotwork · Ribs · Black and grey · Photo

A paw print with five toe pads and a larger main pad is outlined in black and filled with lattice, lace-like and mandala-style ornament. Fine dotwork speckles surround the design, and dotted strands hang from the lower pads. The tattoo is shown in black ink on smooth skin, photographed at a slight angle along the side of the torso.

Dotwork Geometric Ribs Paw print Paw Animal print Mandala Lattice Dot

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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

You find the prints before the ovens are lit, a line of them across the flour-dusted tiles of the back room, each pad pressed clean and deep as a thumbprint in dough. Not the cat. The cat won't go near the sacks. You crouch with the torch in one hand and follow them to the scullery door, where the bolt is drawn back and the frost on the step has been scuffed through to the slate.

Keep reading

The work starts without you. Lattice for the plum tarts, strip laid over strip, each join pinched shut, the edges trimmed with the fluted wheel Mrs Abernethy left in the drawer when she retired. A spoon of sugar, a brush of egg wash, a scatter of dark seeds over the top. Outside the window the sky above the bins goes from ink to the grey of cold porridge, and the first van idles at the kerb with its lights on.

Last week you left the heel of the tin loaf on the step, the way you have every morning since October, and it was gone by the time you came back with the bread knife. You told yourself a fox. Now there is a dog under the bins, a rough-coated thing with one white forefoot and flour on its muzzle, watching you the way a customer watches the last bun on the shelf.

You break off a piece of crust, still soft from the proving tray, and set it on the step beside the prints. The dog does not come any closer. You go back inside and leave the door open a hand's width, and when you look again the crumbs are gone and the frost has three neat pawmarks in it, pressed straight to the edge of the light.