Japanese guardian lion (shishi) tattoo design for sleeve or forearm placement, drawn in black-and-grey irezumi style. A snarling curly-maned lion crouches on a rock, framed by two large peonies and swirling clouds in graded grey shading on cream paper. Swap the subject, flowers or colours, or add your own body-placement outline to adapt the design.

A Japanese traditional irezumi tattoo design in black and grey wash, drawn as a reference for a forearm piece. One large foo dog (karashishi, Japanese guardian lion) in the centre, seated and twisting in a powerful pose with head turned and mouth open showing fangs. It has a thick scrolled mane of curling locks, round bulging eyes, a heavy brow, a curled tail and clawed paws gripping a rock. The motif is drawn with bold, confident black outlines of varied weight. The mane, fur and muscles are shaded with smooth graded grey wash, from deep black in the recesses fading into soft light grey, and bare white paper is left for the highlights. Around the foo dog sit large full-bloom peonies with layered petals and a few leaves, in the same black outline and grey shading, one cluster at the lower left and another at the upper right. Traditional Japanese stylised clouds with scrolled, rounded edges and curling wind bars fill the space around the motif and fade out at the edges. The overall silhouette is a tall, narrow oval that follows a forearm. The clouds taper into soft grey gradients at the top and bottom, and the edges stay open. Line gaps stay wide and clear enough to survive as a tattoo. Plain off-white paper ground, flat even light, no cast shadows, no colour, no text, no border, no photorealism.