Tattoo lettering is often a key component of a successful design. Great lettering can create a spectacular tattoo you will love forever. Conversely, a lettering disaster can leave you upset, disappointed and frustrated. Imagery is important, but so is the text. It must be done correctly. Here are three tips for perfection when it comes to the lettering of tattoos.
Imagine the disappointment of picking up a birthday cake at the bakery and finding out that they accidentally misspelled the name on the cake. If not corrected, it could ruin a party. Fortunately, cake decorators can work instant magic with a little icing and a few simple tools. It doesn’t work that way with ink. If you get a tattoo featuring a spelling error, you are in a very difficult situation. You’ll have to come up with a cover piece of some sort, undergo tattoo removal, or live with an embarrassing error on your body.
It’s simple to avoid. Make sure your spelling is 100% correct. Have no doubts whatsoever. Be certain your tattoo artist has an easy-to-read and wholly inaccurate copy of the text to be used. Spend a few moments going over the copy with the artist, too. This might seem silly and simple, but the stakes are too high to have a mistake. You must get the tattoo lettering right.
Did you know that marketing firms spend countless hours selling the right fonts to use in advertisements and publications? They do that because they understand how important it is to display their messages in a way that clearly conveys their message while capturing the right feeling for it, too.
You need to be just as picky when choosing the form of your tattoo lettering. Using a complicated script font for a small tattoo could result in a murky, hard-to-read mess. Using a lighthearted or comic-like font on a serious piece could completely undermine the message. Tattoo designs using text should be carefully planned to use the right kind of lettering.
If you are planning on using a text-heavy design for your tattoo, find an artist who has a knack with lettering. Even though all professional tattoo artists deal in text on some level, some are true artists when it comes to presenting words. The written message of your tattoo is an integral part of its whole (it may actually be the whole, in many cases), and you should find the right person to hold the tattoo gun.
That means you’ll need to look at samples of letter-heavy tattoos and you’ll want to talk with the tattoo artist. Be certain you are comfortable with his or her abilities and that you get a strong sense of the artist’s commitment to producing truly spectacular tattoo lettering.
