Botanical dotwork illustration of a white wolf and an orange fox in profile, framed by roses, leaves and butterflies on a grey background.

Wolf and fox profiles with florals

Botanical · Colour · Flash

A white wolf and an orange fox face opposite directions in profile, joined by a tangle of leaves, buds and two roses. Fine stippling and hatching model the fur, while the eyes and butterflies add detail. The orange, lilac and cream palette sits on a plain grey background with a pale circle behind the animals.

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

The fair was already folding itself up when you found the wolf and the fox. Canvas came down over the helter-skelter, the generator coughed, and somewhere behind the dodgems a man was swearing in Polish at a stubborn tow hitch. You had been told to fetch the lantern from the showman's wagon and touch nothing else, so naturally you touched the board leaning against its wheel: two animals painted back to back, a white wolf looking left and a red fox looking right, their necks tangled in briar roses and orange buds.

Keep reading

Old Mr Hollis, who ran the rifle gallery, found you there with the lantern. He said the painter had been a woman from Halifax who went to the coast one winter and never came back for her wages. She had painted the pair for a fortune-teller's booth, and the fortune-teller swore a wolf and a fox could never share a hedge without one eating the other. "So she gave them a wall of flowers," he said, "and they've been staring the other way ever since." You asked why she hadn't painted them facing the same direction. He lifted the lantern higher and shrugged. "Because then they'd have to see what the other one was looking at."

You carried the board to the lorry bed and lashed it down beside the horses. When the convoy pulled out onto the dark road towards the next town, you leaned out of the cab window and checked the rope twice. In the lantern light the monarch on the wolf's side seemed to be flying towards the fox, and the cream butterfly on the fox's side seemed to be flying the other way, and you decided that was how it ought to be.

More like this

Black and grey realism drawing of a wolf head thrown back in a howl inside a circle, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement visible.
Howling wolf within a circle
Black and grey drawing of a wolf head filled with geometric patterns and fine stippling, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement visible.
Ornate wolf head design
Realistic wolf head design with amber eyes and blue-grey fur shading, drawn on a plain white background, with no body placement shown.
Realistic wolf head design
Illustrated fox with a pocket watch, leaves and hands, drawn in red, black and grey linework with stippled shading, in the style of a tattoo design.
Fox and pocket watch illustration
Realistic wolf head drawing in brown, grey and blue tones with amber eyes, shown on a white background with no body placement visible.
Realistic wolf head design
Line drawing of a howling wolf with ornate leaf and feather patterns shaded in teal and grey on a pale background, suited to use as a tattoo design.
Howling wolf with ornamental feathers
Front-facing grey wolf head drawn in soft wash shading, with stippled dots fading out at the edges on a white background.
Grey wolf head with dotted edges
Black and grey ornamental drawing of a lynx face with intricate patterned fur, detailed eyes and geometric motifs on the forehead, shown as a tattoo design.
Ornamental lynx face illustration
Black line drawing of a wolf head framed by triangles, a circle, feathers and a dreamcatcher, designed as a geometric tattoo flash.
Wolf and dreamcatcher geometric design
Black ink drawing of a wolf head in profile wreathed with poppy flowers, shaded with dense hatching, as a tattoo design.
Wolf head with poppies
Coloured drawing of a sleeping orange fox with a white chest and dark ears, framed in an oval of brown branches and green ivy, suited to a botanical tattoo design.
Sleeping fox in an ivy wreath
Black and tan illustrated design of a bear face framed by a mandala and cloud scrolls, drawn in a geometric ornamental style with no body placement shown.
Bear face with mandala and clouds

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