Tattoo font preview
Type your words and see them in twelve lettering styles at once, then set the size you actually plan to get and check it still reads.
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
stay true
Sizes are shown at roughly life size on a standard screen. Print the one you want at true size and hold it against the spot before you book.
Lettering is the easiest tattoo to get wrong, because a word that looks clean on a screen closes up once ink spreads into skin. The preview below shows your text in the families artists use most, at a size you control.
Print the one you like at true size and hold it against the spot. If you cannot read it at arm's length on paper, it will be worse at five years old.
How letter height decides everything
Letter height, not overall width, sets whether lettering survives. Most artists want capital letters at 8 mm or taller for script with thin connecting strokes, and 5 mm is about the floor for simple block or typewriter letters. Below that the counters, the enclosed gaps inside letters like a, e and o, fill in as the tattoo heals.
Thin script suffers first because the hairline upstrokes are already close to the thinnest line a needle can hold. If you want script at 3 cm wide, shorten the word rather than shrinking the letters.
What each family costs you in space
Ask your artist to draw the lettering by hand rather than printing a font as a stencil. Hand drawn letters get spaced for the body part they sit on, which is why good lettering looks even on a curved arm.
- Blackletter is dense and dramatic, and it needs width. A five letter word wants 12 cm or more to stay legible.
- Script and sailor script flow well along a forearm or collarbone, and the flourishes can be trimmed without hurting the word.
- Roman capitals stay readable smaller than anything else, which is why dates and single words end up in them.
- Typewriter and stencil faces read cleanly at small sizes and age well, since the strokes are even.
- Single line handwriting is the most personal and the most fragile. Traced from a real note it means more, and it needs a steady hand and a touch up later.
Check the words before the needle
Spelling mistakes in tattoos are common and expensive. Read the text backwards, letter by letter, then have someone else read it. For another language or a script you do not read, get two native speakers to confirm the wording and the characters, and ask them to write it out rather than trusting a translation tool.
Roman numerals trip people up too. Write the date out in full first, then convert, then check the conversion in reverse.
Questions people ask
What font is best for a tattoo?
For words you want readable in twenty years, roman capitals, typewriter and traditional sailor script hold up best, because their strokes are even and the gaps inside letters are wide. Blackletter looks strong at size but fills in when small. Thin modern script is the riskiest choice.
How small can tattoo lettering be?
Simple block or typewriter letters work down to about 5 mm tall. Script with thin connecting strokes wants 8 mm or more. Anything smaller closes up as ink spreads, and by five years a word can read as a dark smudge rather than letters.
Can I use a font from my computer for a tattoo?
You can bring it as a reference, and most artists will redraw it by hand. A printed font stretched onto a curved arm spaces badly, and hand lettering lets the artist adjust weight and spacing for the body part. Commercial fonts also carry licenses that do not cover resale of flash.
Where does lettering age worst?
Fingers, hands, the side of the feet and the ribs. Fingers and hands shed ink fastest because of skin turnover and use, so expect touch ups. Lettering on the ribs blurs as skin moves with breathing and weight change.
Should I get a quote in another language?
Only with two native speakers confirming the wording and the characters, ideally written out by hand. Machine translation regularly produces text that is grammatically wrong or means something else. Chinese and Japanese characters and Arabic script are the most common places this goes wrong.