Demonic Wolf Tattoo

The hound at the gate

A monstrous dog guarding the entrance to the dead is one of the most widely repeated figures in European and Near Eastern myth, and nobody agrees why.

Greece had Cerberus. Norse tradition has Garmr, chained at the entrance to Hel and howling when the end begins. English folklore is full of black dogs on old roads, the Barghest, Black Shuck, an omen rather than an attacker.

The pattern is consistent enough that it has been argued to descend from a shared ancestral story, which is a large claim on thin evidence. What is clear is that a great many separate peoples put a dog at the edge of the underworld.

A design that stays a design

The obvious advantage of wearing something like this temporarily. A horror piece is enjoyable for a weekend, a festival or a Halloween, and considerably less enjoyable at thirty on a Tuesday for the rest of your life.

Five days is about the right commitment for a demon.

The tattoo

The design runs wide rather than tall. The wolf's head snarls to the right with its jaws open, and its mane streams back into a large rune circle, knotwork on the outside and red lettering around an eight-armed stave at the centre. That shape wants a long flat span, so an outer forearm, the side of a calf or a shoulder blade suits it better than a narrow upright placement.

The sheet carries two smaller pieces alongside it, a coiled cobra and a spider on its web.

Avoid joints. Anything crossing an elbow, knuckle or knee cracks as soon as you bend it.

Our article on werewolf tattoos covers the darker designs. See the wolf temporary tattoo range.

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