FUN FACTS ABOUT MY BACK TATTOO

Hello, my dear friends! Did you have a good Easter? How are you doing today?

I'm new on hive and want to make new friends around here. This is my first post at this community and invite you to check my introduce posts to know little bit more about me.

I’m not posting an art by myself today, but the tattoo art I have on my back. I got this tattoo in 2018 and it took 8 sessions (8 hours each session) to get done.

It was made by a very talented female tattoo artist in São Paulo called Marina Reid. If you want an excellent tattoo, go to her. Her page on Instagram is @mar_blacktt.

Well, the animal I have tattooed on me is a CLOUDED LEOPARD (Neofelis Nebulosa), a cat that I consider my power animal, and one of the most beautiful creatures made by nature. Have you ever heard about Clouded Leopards? Have you ever seen one?

Ok, I will tell you some fun (and cute) facts about the Clouded Leopards:

• By taxonomy, Clouded Leopards are a separated genus of cat and not just a type of leopard and now they are in the subfamily Pantherinae, with lions, jaguars, tigers, and other leopards. They are mostly related to Snow Leopards.
• It’s an 11 million years old cat specie from Southeast Asia. There are two subspecies of Clouded Leopards: the Neofelis Nebulosa, the specie from the continent, and the Neofelis Diardi, the specie from Borneo Island. The difference between both is that Diardi has darker skin and spots.
• The Clouded Leopard is considered by Science the evolutional link between the small cats and the big cat family.
• They are the smallest of the big cats. Males are almost double the size of females.
• Clouded Leopards are arboreal cats. They spend most of their lives on tops of the trees. Their super long tails provide them balance and their paws can rotate 360°. For these reasons, they are considered excellent climbers and jumpers, even better than monkeys (by the way, they eat the monkeys hahaha).
• They have the longest canine teeth of all cats, in proportion to skull size, and the longest tail.
• About the sounds they make: they can meow, hiss, and purr like small cats and they also chuffle like tigers, to show happiness.
• Clouded Leopards are on the list of vulnerable species, especially due to the deforestation caused by the high consumption of palm oil.

I was in Miami 2 years ago, in a very serious and dedicated institute of big felines conservation called Panther Ridge Conservation Center and I had the honor and the privilege to meet these gorgeous cats in person. That was an amazing experience!

P.S: I have to clarify that they are not shitty places where the animals are dopped for people to pet them. I would never step my feet in a place like that, of course! All the animals deserve to be treated with dignity, honor, and respect. I preferred to not post a picture of me there to not create false interpretations. The cats are born there because Panther Ridge works on their reproduction for specie preservation, the cats have a huge living together with their caretakers and they become less wild, but not all the cats there. If you are interested, go to @pantherridgeconservation on Instagram to verify their serious work.

That’s it for today, folks! Hope you enjoyed it! Have a wonderful day!

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