Two large cat tattoos on a pair of calves, a colour tiger on the left leg and a black panther on the right, both in a bold Japanese and traditional style.

Tiger and panther on the calves

Japanese · Calf · Mixed · Photo

A tiger leaps down the outside of the left calf, mid-stride with its tail curled up and its mouth open in a snarl. On the right calf, a black panther crouches and looks back over its shoulder, with blue-tinted claws and yellow eyes. The tiger uses orange, black and green-grey shading, while the panther is mostly solid black with grey highlights, and both are outlined in bold black lines against plain skin.

Japanese Traditional Calf Tiger Panther Big cat Claw

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell,

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You will not believe the state of Number Nine since the storm. Mrs Pardoe has given up on the brass polish and gone to bed with a hot water bottle and a flask of gin. The tiger came in through the scullery window on Tuesday night, all orange and shouting, knocked the milk jug off the dresser and went straight up the curtain as if it had been fired from a gun. Mr Sayer swears it was Ruby, the ginger tom from the chandler's, but Ruby has a notched ear and this one had none.

The panther was the odd one. Black as a boot, it sat on the back wall of the yard all night with its tail curled round its feet, looking over its shoulder at the sea as if it were waiting for a train. I took it a saucer of fish from the Friday pan. It didn't eat. It only looked at me with those yellow eyes, the way Father used to look at a bad bill.

Yesterday the tiger came back down the curtain and sat on the stairs, and nobody dared move it. Then the panther walked in across the hall, bold as brass, and the two of them stared each other out until the clock struck four. When I came down at six the tiger was gone and the panther was asleep on the hearthrug with its claws pulled in, the tips a little blue, as though it had walked through ink.

I have decided not to mention any of this to Mrs Pardoe. Come at Whitsun and bring the good scissors. There is something in the yard that needs cutting free of the washing line.

Love, Dot