Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornate lion head in profile

Fine line · Colour · Flash

A lion's head faces right in profile, with closed eyes and a detailed muzzle. The mane is built from flowing fine lines, curls and geometric tribal-style infill patterns. The drawing is rendered in brown and sepia ink with faint teal accents on a textured, pale beige background.

Fine line Lion Lion head Mane Swirl Tribal pattern

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

Dear Nell, the big cat has stopped roaring at the fairground lights, which Mr Ashdown says is a sign of age and I say is a sign of good sense. He sleeps now in the straw by the generator, head on his paws, and when the wind comes off the common he lifts his face into it with his eyes shut, as if he is listening to a tune only he knows.

Keep reading

The women from the church hall in Hexham sent a seamstress over last week to mend the banners. She sat on an upturned crate with her thread and pins, and while she worked she plaited ribbons through the old lion's mane, little tin spangles and strands of red wool and a scrap of a Persian rug she had carried from her mother's house. Mr Ashdown said she would ruin the mane. Instead the lion let her work all afternoon, purring like a kettle, and by teatime he looked like a man dressed for Sunday chapel.

The fair packs up on Saturday for the coast, and Mr Ashdown means to sell him to a zoo in Bristol. I told him I would not sign the papers. Then last night I found the seamstress's pins in the straw, and the lion sitting by the empty ring in all that ribbon, eyes closed, the way he sits when he is remembering something warm.

So I have bought a second wagon, painted it green, and written the old name on its side, Lark and Harrow's Travelling Wonders. We leave at dawn on the drove roads going north, and he will ride up front beside me with his mane full of wool and tin. I will write from wherever the road ends. Keep the kettle warm for me. Your loving uncle, Tom.