Black and grey realism tattoo of a lion's head with a full mane, placed on a person's upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Realistic lion head on upper back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A large lion's head faces forward with its gaze turned slightly to one side, its nose, whiskers and eyes rendered in detail. The shading is soft and smoothly graded, with dense dark tones in the mane and lighter greys across the face. The tattoo fills most of the frame against pale skin, with the edge of a shoulder blade visible at the top.

Realism Back Lion Mane Big cat Portrait Whiskers

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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

Dear Marguerite, the zoo keeper let me in through the service gate at half eleven, which I suppose is what you get for knowing people in Chiswick. The lions were all in their winter house, but the big male had come to the bars to look at the floodlights, the way he does when the traffic on the Great West Road goes quiet. I told him about you. I did not expect him to answer, but he turned his head slowly, the way a man turns when he has been called from the far end of a pub, and looked straight through me.

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What I wanted to say is that I finally understood the thing you kept saying about the mane. It is not hair so much as weather. It darkens at the crown and thins out toward the face, and when the wind comes off the reservoir it lifts and falls like something breathing under a sheet. You always said I drew him too tidy. Tonight I saw he is not tidy at all. There is grease in it, and burrs, and one long grey strand that catches the light right above his left eye.

The keeper, a Mr Okafor with a torch clipped to his lanyard, says the cats here are older than they look. He said it kindly, the way you tell someone a house has damp. I asked him whether the old lion ever thinks about the savannah. He laughed and said the only thing he thinks about is his supper, and then he looked at me the way you used to, as if I had asked the wrong question on purpose.

I am posting this at the box on Hanwell Broadway so it will be waiting when you get back from Lisbon. Keep the lamp on in the back room. I will bring the drawing when it's finished, and you can tell me again where the shadow should fall.