Black ink drawing of a sitting cat filled with ornamental tribal patterns on a cream background, suited to a blackwork tattoo design.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Sitting cat in tribal patterns

Blackwork · Black and grey · Flash

A cat sits upright, facing forward, with its tail curling up at the right side. Its body, face, ears and tail are filled with dense black linework and solid black shapes in tribal and ornamental patterns, including chevrons, dots, scrolls and stripes. The image is a two-tone design in black and cream on a plain cream background, centred with open space around the figure.

Blackwork Cat Sitting cat Tribal pattern Ornamental Chevron Scroll Dotwork Tail

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomas,

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The grey cat has taken to sitting on the warp beam again, so the loom has been still since Tuesday. Mother says she will not have the animal shifted. The cat has the same stubborn look as the old priest who used to sit by the granary gate. I told her the cloth would suffer, and she said the cloth has suffered worse than a cat. She is right, which is the trouble with her.

You asked in your last letter whether the pattern for the sail is finished. It is nearly done. I have been working chevrons up the middle, the way you drew them for me on the back of the tally board, and between them I have put dots in rows of three, as you said the sailors want, so the wind can find its way through. Mother thinks it foolish to spend so long on one sail. I told her the sea looks at what it is given.

The cat is the reason the pattern turned out as it did. Every morning I watch her tail curl up and round like a fern before it opens, and I have started weaving that curl into the border, scroll after scroll, until the edge of the cloth looks as if it is trying to catch its own breath. When I finished the last one yesterday, the cat stood, stretched, and walked straight across the wet dye, leaving four small prints on the selvedge. I did not scold her. I have left them there.

Sew the sail carefully when you reach the harbour. If you see a mark like that on another cloth, you will know it came from this loom, and you will know I am still at it.

Your sister, Ilse