Black dotwork tattoo of two stylised cats facing each other with eye motifs and a crescent moon above, on the upper back.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Two facing cats and a crescent moon

Dotwork · Back · Black and grey · Photo

The design shows two stylised cats in profile, facing each other with their noses close together, each with an almond-shaped eye marking. A crescent moon sits above them, centred between the two heads. The linework is bold and the shading is built from fine stippled dots, in black ink only, on what appears to be the upper back.

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

Sit closer, the wind off the estuary likes to get in under a cloak. You see the arch above the broken gate? Those two stone cats were cut by a mason called Idris Penn, and he set them facing each other because his wife would not speak to him after the wedding feast. Nobody believed a cat could hold a grudge, but they can hold a stare, and that is what he gave them.

Keep reading

Every night the lord's cats came down from the wall to hunt mice in the granary, and every night they met beneath the crescent moon carved above the arch and argued over who had caught more. The moon was the only true thing in the castle, the old folk said, because it was never finished. At dusk one cat would swear the moon was waxing and the other that it was waning, and they would stay until the church bell rang the hour, noses pressed together, fur standing up along their spines.

One autumn the granary roof fell in, and the mice ran out across the courtyard in a grey tide. The cats did not chase them. They looked at one another over the rubble, and for the first time in a hundred years neither spoke. Then the left cat lifted a paw and drew a little curve in the dust, and the right cat filled it with a dot, and the mason's apprentice, lying in the straw with a broken leg, watched them do it until dawn.

When the apprentice could walk again he carved those dots into the stone, a thousand of them, and the moon has been waxing and waning ever since, depending on who is telling it. Mind the step on your way out.

More like this

Black and red tribal tattoo of two intertwined wolves with heart and swirl motifs, across the upper back.
Two tribal wolves across the upper back
Black and grey ornamental wolf head tattoo with a third eye motif on the upper arm, in a blackwork and dotwork style.
Ornamental wolf head on upper arm
Black and grey realism tattoo of a hairless cat skull with large ears and fangs, placed centrally on the chest.
Cat skull on the chest
Black and grey wolf head tattoo across the upper back, one half drawn as realistic fur and the other half filled with ornate mandala patterns.
Wolf head with mandala back piece
Black geometric wolf head tattoo with hatched linework and solid black areas, placed on the thigh in a blackwork style.
Geometric wolf head on a leg
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of an animal skull with two roses, leaves and a triangle, on the outer thigh.
Animal skull and roses on a thigh
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a fox head with a dagger driven through it, placed centrally on the chest.
Fox head pierced by a dagger on the chest
Fox face tattoo with a crown motif and teal ornamental swirls on the thigh, drawn in grey linework and shading.
Fox face tattoo on thigh
Black and grey realism wolf head tattoo on an upper thigh, framed by a dotwork mandala above and a geometric flower of life pattern below.
Wolf head with mandala and geometric pattern on thigh
Black geometric dotwork tattoo of a wolf's head with angular facets and stippled shading, on the lower leg.
Geometric wolf head on a calf
Black and grey dotwork fox head with a rose and flowing leaves tattooed on the upper back.
Fox head with rose on upper back
Black and grey dotwork tattoo of a cat's head with an eye above and a crescent moon below, framed by sunburst rays on an upper arm.
Cat with all-seeing eye and crescent moon

From the plentytattoo archive, uploaded by a user. Is this your work? Ask for credit or removal.