Traditional style tattoo of a snarling black cat head with purple eyes and red ears, with STAY above and HOME below, on the thigh.

Snarling black cat with STAY HOME lettering

Traditional · Thigh · Mixed · Photo

A snarling black cat head with purple eyes, pink nose, red inner ears and an open red mouth showing teeth, outlined in bold black linework with grey shading on the fur. The words STAY and HOME are set in black lettering above and below the cat, and the design is framed by a plain background of skin. The tattoo is shown in colour on the upper thigh, photographed straight on.

Traditional Lettering Thigh Cat Black cat Cat head Lettering

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The cat had been under the cloakroom bench since the Easter dance, and nobody at the Palais would admit to feeding it. Mrs Ashby said it belonged to the caretaker. The caretaker said it belonged to the bandleader. Every time the trumpets went up, its ears flattened and its mouth opened, red as the lino by the stage, and the sailors learnt to step around it.

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Frank Doyle had been stepping around me for three weeks. He was a corporal with a slick parting and a way of saying my name as if he'd already won something. When the band slowed for the last waltz he asked if I'd like a breath of air in the yard. Over his shoulder I could see the notice board by the door, where the words STAY and HOME had been painted in faded black letters the colour of weak tea. I had my coat half on. The cat was watching me from under the bench, lips pulled back over every tooth it owned.

I told Frank I'd promised my mother. He laughed and took my wrist anyway, and the cat came out from under the bench faster than I have ever seen anything move, claws first across the back of his hand. He yelped, knocked over a chair, and by the time the lights came up he was gone through the side door with his cap in his fist. Nobody asked me anything. The caretaker just shrugged and said the animal had good taste.

I walked home alone with the cat trotting ahead of me, tail straight up like a question mark. On my step it sat and washed its face while I fumbled for the key, and when I finally turned round it was still there, waiting, as if the door had been its idea. I left it open. Some nights I still hear that yowl coming up the stairs, and I am glad of it.