Small black line tattoo of a cat face inside a circle, with pointed ears and whisker strokes, on the side of a finger.

Small cat face outline on a finger

Fine line · Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A small tattoo of a simple cat face sits on the side of a finger. It is drawn as a black outline circle with two triangular ears and short strokes on either side, like whiskers. The ink is solid black with no shading, and the background is a grey fabric and a car interior, with a lilac nail visible at the tip of the finger.

Fine line Hand Cat Cat face Circle Whiskers

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

Your reed still slips on the second ear, even after eleven years of painting the same cat. The priest at the granary gate wants it neat: a round head, two points like folded linen, and three short strokes either side so the grain-counters can read it from the road without stopping. Mind the ink, he says. Rain takes the black and leaves only grey.

Keep reading

The sacks come up from the Nile barges on the ninth day of every month, and each one needs its mark before the carters lift it onto their backs. You learned the sign from your uncle, who learned it from a man who swore the cat was a door that opened only one way. You never asked which way. You sit on the warm stone step with the jar between your knees and paint, and the sacks wait in a row like patient animals.

On the morning the tax-men arrive with their wax tablets, they count only what the marks declare temple grain and nothing more. Their clerk squints at your cat, then at the sacks, then at you. He asks who taught you such crooked lines. You tell him a cat did. He writes that down too, because it is quicker than arguing with a sign, and the afternoon carts roll out past the gate with their loads unrecorded.