Wolf and Butterfly Tattoo

Two kinds of transformation

The pairing is less arbitrary than it looks, and it is doing something neither animal could do alone.

The butterfly is the standard symbol of change, and it is the gentle version: something small and unremarkable becomes something delicate, on a schedule, without violence.

The wolf carries the other version. Change that is not gentle, not scheduled and not entirely welcome, which is the whole substance of the werewolf story and a good deal of what the animal has always stood for.

Together they cover both halves, which is more than most symbolic pairings manage.

Colour and softness

Colour runs through the whole piece rather than sitting only in the trimmings. The wolf is painted in green, teal and yellow watercolour, head thrown back in a howl, its body trailing off into long yellow ribbons. Two butterflies drift above it, one blue and one red, with a smaller one settled on its head, and small flowers in yellow, red, purple and blue gather along the chest.

Those ribbons and petals soften the outline where it meets bare skin. A soft irregular edge sits on the body far better than a hard rectangle does.

The tattoo

6 x 9.8 cm, upright and compact, so it suits a forearm, a calf, a shoulder or an ankle.

See our top wolf tattoos article and the wolf temporary tattoo range.

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