Tattoo Lettering is a type of tattoo art that is becoming much more popular nowadays. Celebrities such as David and Victoria Beckham have tattoo lettering on their body as expressions of their love for each other. This is not to say that tattoo lettering should only be used to express one’s love for a significant other. Tattoo lettering can be used creatively for any number of purposes - to signify association with a particular club, organization or brotherhood, to signify belief in a certain cause, or, very simply, because it looks cool. One of my good high school buddies, David, got his first tattoo done at the age of 16 - and he’s never looked back. He actually got his first tattoo - a small, Chinese dragon, on a whim whilst he was traveling through Asia. At first, he panicked when he got home - what would my girlfriend think? What would my parents say? What if everyone at school finds out?
You see, until recently, tattoos were used in popular culture to signify negative things - notions of gang membership, paramilitary organizations were associated with tattoos. This is far from the truth. Tattoos have been used throughout history to symbolize and signify various things, from being the Pharaoh of Egypt to membership in a Maori clan. A recent poll conducted in the United States indicated that some 16% of all adult Americans have at least one tattoo of sorts.
There is a great compilation of tattoo designs here
David suffered from none of the disaster scenarios he had been thinking though. He’s now an up-and-rising attorney, and has gone on to supplement his original dragon tattoo with additional (though fairly discreet) ones. More recently, he decided that he would have some tattoo lettering done to symbolize the experiences he had whilst traveling through Asia and Europe - some letters written in Chinese and Celtic script.
The key to having proper tattoo lettering done is to make sure that it’s clear in your mind exactly what you want it for. Letters, especially in other languages, can be much more symbolic than a traditional patterned or image-based tattoo. If you are inking in a foreign language too, make sure that you know someone who speaks that language have a look at the tattoo flash before it’s inked on.
If you’re like David and have existing tattoos, also keep in mind how tattoo lettering will complement them. You need to think of your body as an art canvas, a work that is presented as a whole to the world.
P.S. Here is the Chinese character David went with, it means ‘dragon’.
You can check out all sorts of nice tattoo designs here
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