[California]

I know this is rather silly, but my friend really, really wants to know what kind of snake the tattoo artist gave her. I told her it’s probably just a generic snake from the artist’s imagination. But at least the artist shows specific head scalation, so she may have been working from a photo. Based on that scalation, I’ve eliminated a couple of dozen species but I figure that if it closely resembles any real species, One of the experts here will know. TIA.

7 comments · 71% upvoted · source · other discussions

comments

serpenthusiast

Looks like a generic snake to me !

Used_Advantage3674

Reverse bodied water snake

FeriQueen [OP]

That seems the likeliest possibility I’ve seen so far, although the body is more Colubridae like.

Odd-Hotel-5647

To add onto serpenthusiast, while the artist might have had a reference photo those had scales are not what you'd expect to see they seem more like the atheris genus scales planted onto the head.

FeriQueen [OP]

Yeah, bush viper-ish but on the wrong head.

Odd-Hotel-5647

Yeah I mean it just looks off, I'm hoping with your expertise in the area as well you can see what I mean.

Edit: I figured out what felt so wrong they layered the head scales, however they don't overlap like that on the head where they are just next to eachother

FeriQueen [OP]

Yes. It almost looks like the rear head scales form some sort of neck fringe.