Small black and grey tiger head tattoo on the side of a finger, shaded in a realistic style, with a dotted line under the chin.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Tiger head on a finger

Hand · Black and grey · Photo

A small tiger's head sits across the side of a finger, with its ears, eyes and nose drawn in outline. The fur is shaded in black and grey, with heavier dark stripes across the forehead and cheeks. A short row of dots runs beneath the chin, and the hand rests against a dark background.

Hand Tiger Whiskers Dot Finger

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

Dear Tomas,

Keep reading

The crate came off the Halcyon Rose on Tuesday with the tiger still inside, though the men on the quay swore it had been sold to a circus in Hull. Mr Ferrier signed for it in the rain and sent a boy running up the cliff path to tell me the thing was mine to keep the lamp for, not to light. I have not yet worked out what he meant by that.

It is a cat's head, carved from some pale wood and painted by someone with a steady hand. The stripes run down its brow like the shadow of the railings on the gallery at dusk. Its eyes are the green of the water just outside the reef, and there is a string of small black beads under its jaw, as if it has been wearing a necklace it did not want to give up.

Last night the fog came in thick as wool and I climbed up to trim the wick. The tiger sat on the sill beside the clockwork. When the beam swept round, its stripes seemed to darken and then lift, and I swear the beads under its chin moved in the draught. I did not sleep. At four I wrote 'bright and steady' in the log, and at five I looked up and the sill was empty.

Mr Ferrier says the Rose carried it from Calcutta, and that a woman paid for its passage in gold and asked only that it be kept where the sea could see it. I told him the sea has seen plenty. He laughed and said the sea had never been asked to watch anything quite so proud.

Come up at Easter. The gallery rail needs paint and I would rather argue with you than with the gulls.

Yours, Walter