Colour tattoo of the Cheshire Cat, upside down with a striped purple body and a pink grinning face, on a calf in a traditional style.

Upside-down Cheshire Cat on a calf

Traditional · Calf · Colour · Photo

A cartoon Cheshire Cat is shown upside down, with a purple and violet striped body, pink paws and a long tail curling to the right. Its wide pink grin, yellow eyes and small pink nose sit beneath the body, set within a bold black outline with soft shading. Colour ink dominates the design on pale skin, and the composition is centred on the leg.

Traditional Calf Cheshire cat Cat Stripe Smile Cartoon

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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

Brother Anselm had the scriptorium to himself the winter the cat came down from the rafters head first and sat on the lectern as if it had been asked. It was striped purple as a bruise, and its grin was so wide that the lamp seemed dim beside it. 'You're in my light,' he said, because the abbot had taught them to speak plainly to whatever came through the door.

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The cat said nothing. It turned its tail toward the vellum and curled the tip the way a man points at a word he wants read. Anselm saw that the line he had been copying had grown a second line beneath it, in faint red ink he had not made. The cat's grin widened. Then the cat was gone, and only the grin remained, hanging over the page like a pink crescent moon, patient as a debt.

Anselm finished the psalter that winter with the smile at the foot of every leaf. The abbot found the book on the Feast of St Brigid and wept, though not for the reason anyone guessed. The gospel of John had been copied in the cat's own hand, and every letter read correctly, the right way up.