Realism tattoo of two Great Danes, one harlequin and one dark, with blue script reading Absolute Dane on the calf.

Two Great Dane portraits with Absolute Dane script

Realism · Calf · Mixed · Photo

The tattoo shows the heads of two Great Danes, one harlequin-patterned with black spots on grey and one darker, with ears cropped upright and mouths partly open. The dogs are shaded in soft greys and blacks with fine detail in the eyes and markings, and the blue script lettering reading Absolute Dane sits across the lower part of the design. The design fills the calf, with the heads angled toward the left and the lettering running beneath them.

Realism Lettering Calf Dog Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Nobody tells you a Great Dane has no idea how big it is. Dorothy Pask had two, Hector, a harlequin with spots scattered over his grey like spilt ink, and Bramble, who was the colour of wet slate. Every Thursday I drove them from Hebden Bridge to the vet in Halifax, and every Thursday Hector took the front seat, folded himself in like a deckchair, and leaned into every bend as if he were steering.

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Bramble had the back seat, chin on the headrest, watching the wipers with the patience of a magistrate. Dorothy sat between them holding a flask of tea she never poured, and whenever the receptionist asked how her boys were getting on, she'd thump her knee and say, 'Absolute Dane,' as if that closed the matter. I took it for a joke until the day the sign-in board fell off the surgery wall and Hector caught it in his mouth, very gently, and carried it to the desk.

The last Thursday in March, Bramble wouldn't stand. Dorothy asked me to go the long way, over the tops and past the reservoir, because Bramble liked the water. Hector pressed his nose to the glass the whole road and never once tried the door handle. When we parked outside the surgery, Dorothy said it again, quietly, 'Absolute Dane,' and I understood it had never been a joke about size.

Hector got out first. He turned at the gate, looked back at the empty seat behind me, and then walked very slowly up the path, as though someone had told him the way and he was keeping to it.