Tattoo Fonts

Since the creation of tattooing, one of the most important aspects of the art of tattoo is the tattoo font. One's font choice dramatically changes the feel of the artwork permanently applied to the skin.

Choosing the Right Tattoo to Accompany Your Text

Before selecting the font to use, first decide if you need one. If you are going with a tattoo design similar to the one below, you may not want any text to go along with it. The design itself says everything that needs to be said. The design speaks of luck and Irish culture. This design could be interpreted as a Celtic knot or a Gothic cross.

Choose a tattoo that best suits you. Take the time to look through the books that the tattoo artist provides at the tattoo shop. If you can’t find anything that you like, ask for ideas from the tattoo artist. He or she will be able to help you decide on the tattoo style and placement. If you are feeling courageous, feel free to give the artist an idea of what you would like and allow him or her to design it for you. If you want to include words in the tattoo, the artist can help you choose the right font to accompany the design. Choose fonts that fit your personality. If you're not sure what to use, ask the tattoo artist. He or she may have many samples to show you.

The tattoo itself can be made up solely of words, depicted using different styles of fonts. There are many stylistic approaches that the tattoo artist can take in order to make your font stand out like the following example:

As you can see, if there is a favorite quote from a song that you like, the artist can create a nicely stylized tattoo font, surrounding it with a musical cleft and bar lines. It’s a simple design that stands out with some added flourishes.

The Use of Tattoo Fonts

Tattoo fonts are derived mainly from typographical sources. Some are created by the tattoo artist. Fine fonts are much harder to draw on the skin with a tattoo needle than block fonts (as seen below).

Fine Font Sample

Block Font Sample

With block fonts, the artist draws the outline on first, then fills in the outline with the color or colors of your choice. Block tattoo fonts hurt more as filling in the outline takes more time. The fine tattoo fonts are a lot prettier than the block fonts, but are more intricate, and can lead to costly mistakes when applied by an unsure hand. Make sure you choose a tattoo artist who has a good reputation for fine-line detail work, or else you may find yourself spending more money for corrective work. Skilled tattoo artists can do the fine tattoo font quickly, and occasionally they will even do the text tattooing freehand.

Some examples of detailed, fine-line tattoo font work can be seen with languages that make use of characters. Chinese characters, for instance, can vary from fine line to block work. Arabic tattoo writing and symbols are another great example of fine-line detail work. These fonts make the tattoo challenging, but you can create an incredibly beautiful tattoo when you combine the tattoo font with a picture. An example of one such beautiful combination combines the Chinese character for “Peace” with an orange blossom tree.

The Many Styles of Fonts

Tattoo fonts range from the simplistic block-style tattoo text to simple fine-line detail. They may also include detailed tattoo fonts made from virtually any style of writing. Languages such as Arabic, Chinese or Japanese use symbols. Other tattoo fonts include scroll work, Olde English style writing, or unique combinations of fonts. Many tattoo artists are asked to create text representing movie fonts. Some examples can be seen below, along with unique styles:

Movie Style Tattoo Fonts
Other Tattoo Font Styles

The more detailed the tattoo, the more steps the artist will need to perform in order to complete it. Some tattoos are completed in stages to ensure excellent results. Shading and texture are usually added later. Fonts and coloring may also be added later in some cases.

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