If he wore a red wig over his black hair - with his black hair showing underneath, in the tail or whatever - that could be the 'tiger' combination! My young cousin had 'Emo' hair like that last year!

I found this clip of 'Tippoo's Tiger' on youtube, with a very posh woman playing a tune on it! Tipu Sultan became a Jacobin supporter, and the man being eaten by the tiger may be meant to be the son of the head of the British East India company, killed by a tiger in 1792 - there are better pictures of the mechanical tiger on the Victoria and Albert Museum website, but their webite is offline today for some reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrO5a5k1z0