Black and grey realism tattoo of a lion's head with a full mane on a person's lower leg.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic lion head on a calf

Realism · Calf · Black and grey · Photo

A large lion's head faces forward, with its eyes, nose and muzzle rendered in fine detail. The mane is shaded with soft, feathered strokes that fade into the skin at the edges. The tattoo is entirely in black and grey ink, and the photo shows it centred on the calf against a grey pavement.

Realism Calf Lion Lion head Mane

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

Tuesday, gone midnight. The rain has stopped at last, so I can hear the buses on Deansgate sighing at the lights. Mr Okafor came in at ten with a cracked print of his father's lion, the one that stood over the gate of the Palatine picture house before they pulled it down in 1971. He wants it back on a wall before his daughter's wedding. I told him I'd try, and I meant it.

Keep reading

I've spent the night with a sharpened pencil and a tin of charcoal grey, working from that faded photograph. The face is the easy part. The mane defeats me. In the print it bleeds into the dark of the stonework, so you can't tell where the lion stops and the street begins. I worked the shading the way old Harold taught me, a light hand, feathering outward until the edges dissolve into the paper.

Around two, a lad pressed his face to the shop glass and asked if I'd do something he could carry about with him for good. I told him to come back in daylight and bring his nerve. He laughed and walked off towards the canal. I went back to the lion, which had begun to look as though it was following the lamp with its eyes.

Finished at dawn. I lifted the sheet and the lion stared straight at me, steady as a sentry. Mr Okafor can have his wall. I'll keep the tracing for myself, folded in the drawer with the other things that were never meant for sale.