Morse code tattoo generator

The morse code alphabet

International Morse Code has been standardised for over a century and the version below is the one used everywhere. The short codes went to the common letters, which is why E is a single dot and T a single dash while Q and Y take four marks each.

Spacing is what makes it readable

Four measurements define the whole code, and all of them are multiples of one dot.

The four lengths

• A dot is one unit, and it is the unit everything else is measured in.
• A dash is three dots long.
• The gap between marks inside a letter is one dot wide.
• The gap between letters is three dots wide, and the gap between words is seven.

Variants, and how long the word gets

Most morse tattoos space every mark evenly, which deletes the letter boundaries. Four dots in a row with equal gaps could be H, or S then E, or I twice, or four separate E's. Readable morse needs those gap sizes drawn to scale on the stencil, with nobody tidying them up for looks. Wanting the pattern instead of the message is a fine choice, and one worth making on purpose.

Solid dots and dashes is the classic version and the most readable. Filled and open circles read as jewellery and work as a band around a wrist or a bicep, with the open circles standing in for dots. A broken line suits a forearm, and a vertical column down the spine or the back of the arm takes a longer phrase than any horizontal line will.

With a 4 mm dot, a dash is 12 mm, the letter gaps are 12 mm and the word gaps 28 mm, so a short word covers more skin than people expect.

Where it fits, and who can read it

A single word suits the inner forearm along the arm, the collarbone, the outside of the upper arm or the ribs. A band needs the full circumference, roughly 16 to 18 cm around an adult wrist and 30 to 35 cm around a bicep, and it has to meet itself cleanly at the back where you cannot see it. For a phrase, a spine takes a vertical column of 20 to 40 cm.

Line weight is the other decision. A solid 4 mm dot is usually packed with a round liner or a small magnum and holds its edge for decades. Shrinking the dot shrinks everything with it, and a dot under 3 mm across stops looking like a dot once the ink settles, which is how small morse tattoos end up reading as a thickened line after five years.

Almost nobody reads a morse tattoo off a stranger's arm, which is most of the reason people choose it. Get the spacing right for yourself and let the design around it do the visible work. Describe that part in the generator and keep the code as its own layer for the artist, since generated marks and spacing are unreliable.