Black and grey realism tattoo of a squirrel on leafy branches beside a roaring lion's head on the upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Squirrel and roaring lion on upper back

Realism · Back · Black and grey · Photo

A squirrel sits among leafy branches on the left, while a roaring lion's head faces right on the same band of skin. The work uses fine black linework with soft grey shading for fur, foliage and the lion's mane, and the design is set against the skin with no colour ink.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The oak at Skerra Point had only one good branch left after the gale, and the squirrel Morag had decided it was hers. The lion, who had come over on the mainland boat with a cough and a bad temper, said the branch belonged to whoever could roar loudest. He roared. The gulls lifted off the cliff. Morag did not move.

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All that autumn they quarrelled over the branch, the lion below it with his mane full of salt, the squirrel above it with her cheeks full of hazelnuts. The fishermen's wives said the island had never been so noisy. Then the winter came early, the harbour iced at the edges, and the boats stayed tied up for ninety days.

By February the lion was thin and could no longer roar, only wheeze. Morag came down the trunk one morning with her cheeks empty and sat on the lowest branch, level with his nose. She cracked a hazelnut between her teeth and pushed the meat towards him with one paw, the way she had once pushed his share of the acorns out of reach.

He ate it. In spring, when the boats came back and the branch had leaves again, the lion lay down in its shade and did not roar at anyone. Morag still claimed the branch and he let her keep it, and the fishermen's wives said that was the quietest the island had ever been.

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