Black and grey realistic lion head tattoo with a flowing mane and a yellow eye, sitting on the shoulder.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic lion head on a shoulder

Realism · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

A snarling lion head faces left, with its mouth open and teeth showing, and its mane dissolves into wispy, smoke-like shading behind it. The work uses fine greyscale shading for the fur and face, with a small yellow accent in the eye. Partial scale-like shapes are visible at the right edge of the frame, and the lion is set against the curve of the shoulder.

Realism Shoulder Lion Lion head Mane Eye Teeth Smoke Scale

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Hanne, the ferry from Calais was late again, so I have been sitting in the cab of the lorry outside the Dover checkpoint writing this on the back of a customs form, which is the only paper Dad left in the glovebox. You will laugh, but the lion from the old wood carving in Grandmother's hall keeps coming to mind. You remember it, the one with the yellow glass eye that Uncle Piet swore was a real stone. Every night this week I have dreamt of it with its mane full of smoke, snarling at the border men as they wave us through.

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The officer at the booth asked what I was carrying. I said oranges and sorrow, which was a joke Dad would have liked, and he did not laugh. He looked past me, at the shoulder of the lorry where the paint has flaked, and for a moment his face went quite still, as if he had seen something moving in the mist over the tarmac. Then he stamped the sheet and said only, keep your head down on the M20, the wind is bad tonight.

I will be home by Thursday if the boat stops playing games. Tell Mama the eye on the carving is still yellow, and tell her I checked it twice before the barrier lifted. I am not frightened, Hanne. The lion is only watching the road for us, the way it always did from the hall.