Traditional style tattoo of a snarling black panther with a raised curled tail, yellow claws and red accents, on the upper back near the shoulder blade.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Snarling black panther on the upper back

Traditional · Back · Mixed · Photo

A black panther crouches forward with its mouth open, showing yellow fangs, a red tongue and yellow claws, with its tail curling up above its back. The panther is filled with solid black ink and bold outlines, with small grey highlights on its body and red and yellow used for the eyes, mouth and claws. The design sits centrally on the upper back, with the curled tail reaching toward the shoulder.

Traditional Back Panther Big cat Claw Fangs

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The old prince of Vessary had no sons left to hunt for him, so he hunted his own cellars instead, and found there a black panther that had come in from the mountain passes the winter the river froze. Nobody in the court would go down to fetch it. The cook sent up a bowl of mutton and the stable boy sent up a bridle, and the panther ate the mutton and bit the bridle in two and looked at them all with eyes like hot brass.

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It was Ilse, the washerwoman's daughter, who went down with a lamp and a bucket of scraps. She talked to it the way her mother talked to the mangle, low and without stopping. Within a month the panther followed her up the stone stairs at dusk, its tail lifting behind it like a question mark that would not be answered. The prince watched from his window and said nothing, because a prince who says nothing is often thought wise.

On the night the eastern brigands came over the ridge, the panther went out through the gate before anyone could stop it. Ilse ran after and found it crouched on the bridge, mouth wide, red tongue and yellow fangs bared at the dark, claws dug into the planks. The raiders saw what waited and turned their horses back down the valley without a single shot fired.

In the morning the prince sent for Ilse and offered her a title, a manor, a seat at the council. She asked only for the panther's bowl to be kept full, and for the cellar door to stay unlocked. He agreed, and the bowl was never empty again, and the bridge was never crossed by anyone who meant the castle harm.