Realistic black and grey lion head tattoo roaring on the upper arm, surrounded by shaded clouds.

Roaring lion with clouds on upper arm

Realism · Upper arm · Black and grey · Photo

A large realistic lion head with a full mane fills most of the upper arm, shown mid-roar with its teeth and open mouth visible. The fur, eyes and nose are rendered with fine soft shading and sharp highlights, set against dark smoky clouds that frame the design. The image is a close crop of the arm against a plain light background and a white vest, so the colour is limited to browns and greys.

Realism Upper arm Lion Mane Roar Cloud Big cat

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tom,

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You will not believe what came off the Oban boat on Tuesday, and I have had to sit down twice writing this. Mr Abernethy's travelling show had been stuck on the mainland since the spring, and when they finally crossed with their wagons they had one lion left, an old male called Caesar with a mane like a burnt haystack. The men lowered him onto the slipway in a crate far too small for him, and he pushed his great head out between the bars and roared at the gulls until every dog on the island started barking.

Nobody had told the crofters what to expect, so they stood well back, but I walked down with the flask and sat on the bollard. He looked at me with those pale eyes as if I owed him an apology for the weather. The clouds were coming in over Ben Mhor the colour of wet slate, and I swear he turned his head to watch them, as though he knew what they meant before any of us did.

That night the fog came down so thick that Donald Gillies, out after the mackerel with his boy, could not see his own bow. The boy was crying. Donald told me afterwards that he heard a roar from the shore, long and deep, and then another, and he steered by it the whole way in, like a man following a bell.

Abernethy says Caesar goes back to the mainland next month. I have told him the island would be glad to keep him, and I have told the gulls the same. Write soon, and tell Mother I have not let the dog sleep indoors.

Love, Ailsa