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if you get a really good solid stencil i try to line one letter, then fill it in. this way you are doing the fill BEFORE the swelling has a chance to set in and it will hurt a lot less, and in my opinion take a lot less time. however, if you are worried about losing your stencil line the whole thing, then go back and colour it
most of my script–depending on the size, and overall design–I do with a 7RL, and a 9RS. again this goes piece by piecea good place to find fonts is http://www.dafont.com
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Ahhh I hate doing script. No fun hahaha, but in high demand.
Basically what Ram said. But with writing, there are 2 things you have to be extra carefull of.
Know exactly what your client want, give them the ball and make them choose. I usually direct them to dafont.com, and ask them to find what font they want. And just to further their work on their own tattoo, I tell them to download a font, in word or any other word program. I tell them to print it out and measure it on their body. Then they can tell me what sieze and so on.
But if they want it too small, and/or in a wierd place, I guide them to get a bigger sieze, and an alternative place.
(at first, I took it as an artform to come up with a special font of my own design, only to find, that I used too much time, and the client didnt want it. And Dafont.com has millions of fonts, and its getting harder coming up with something original)The second thing, and the most important thing of all time. Again, this is placed on your client. Spelling mistakes. Ask the client to write down what he/she wants written. And then tripple check it yourself. KEEP the original atleast a year, so your client cant come back and say, HEY MAN….. YOU SPELLED THIS WRONG.
I personally never made this kind of mistake. But I learned by watching my mentor doing a spelling mistake. Learn from your elders right? -
I actually have a sign in my shop that says “We are not responsible for misspelled tattoos.” and every word is misspelled to set an example lmao!
everyone is always like “What language is that?” “It says “We are not responsible for misspelled tattoos, but it’s all misspelled.” “oh.”be careful with the size. as you age your dermal pocket actually shrinks, and htis causes the ink to travel slightly. if you use words that are TOO bold or TOO small, or TOO Close together then they wont stand up to the rest of time. the spaces in your “e” or “a” will end up being filled in by travelling ink if you don’t make the right sizing.
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No offense guys… I mean that. But the advice here indicates a serious lack of experience and knowledge on the subject.
For one thing… sending a client to dafont.com and letting them choose their typeface is a really bad idea.
Why? Simple answer: your client’s have no idea what works in the skin, what will last 2 years or 20. You’re supposed to know the skin… and your capabilities in that skin… and be able to guide your clients toward the sane option.
A lot of fonts will work in the skin given the right space. Some fonts won’t work at all. Sure you can tattoo them, but can you read them later? For instance: all cap Old English, or all cap scrolled text. All the similar shapes and all the extra line-work can make the lettering hard to read. Then there are the super-kewl street graphic fonts, the kick-ass tribal fonts, or Norwegian black-metal fonts that you can’t even read on a wall, hoodie, or cd cover… let alone in the skin.
And don’t forget the size of the font:
“Dude I want like 4 inch (7 cm) tall old text letters across my back that read ‘MotherFucker’!!! Yeah, Badass!!!” …Except it won’t fit. Unless he really wants a tattoo that resembles a Slavik hockey jersey.
“I want these song lyrics in script on my ribs. Wouldn’t that be cool, maybe add some stars and flowers?” Cept the song is three verses, chorus, bridges and all that… so the letters turn out to be 1/4 inch tall. In 5 years it’s going to be mush on her ribs… and ribs are a super bitch to tattoo something that fine on anyway. It gets worse if she has some extra pounds… it gets way worse if she USED to have extra pounds.
You have to know what works best… so you’d be the best one to decide which fonts and which sizes of those fonts work best.
I suggest you go through dafont.com and select maybe 15 or 20 different fonts. Say: 5 script fonts, 5 calligraphy (old text), 5 bold fonts, and a random assortment of other fonts that you’re interested in tattooing… as… long… as… they’re… legible. Now you have plenty of options for your clients and you have a solid set of fonts that you can get familiar with. Familiarity leads to confidence, confidence leads to better tattoos.
Consider though that you don’t have just 15 or 20 fonts to work with. You have several different options on finishing the fonts:
You can leave them as lines and use line weight (different thickness of lines on one side or the other, top or bottom or a combination) to make it ‘pop’.
You can do solid lines and shade the bottom half from solid black through different shades of gray to light (or bare) on top with white highlights.
You can do solid black with a drop shadow.
… solid black with scrollwork (works better with script than calligraphic/old text fonts)And those are just a few options. Get creative… you are an artist.
Yes, script is popular. But the most popular script going is that free-hand ‘west-coast’ style that was popularized in California. Practice practice practice and you can figure out how to bang it out by hand. You can also embellish it… play it with, see what works and what ends up too busy. “If I do this… does this get lost?” or “If I do this… can I still read it?”
Lay out is also critical to good looking lettering. The tops and bottoms of the body of the letters should be even. The stems and pipes should be even and if you put them at an angle… all of the angles should be the same. The tall part of your lower case “b” and the tall part of your lower case “d” should be the same height, thickness and angle throughout the word or sentence… the same for your “y”s and “p”s.
DO NOT run solid black lettering through your stencil machine. Sure guys with shitloads of experience do it… and do it well. Lots of hacks (not referring to anyone here, just saying) also fuck up extremely simple tattoos by not taking time to do this simple step. Trace the black lettering, pull good outlines and stencil that. Better yet, make your stencils by hand until you know which way your hand wants to go, and which ways it doesn’t like to go.
When it comes to tattooing the lettering… seriously? If a guy is wiping away the stencil just doing lines… how the hell will the stencil survive lines, then color (black, yes I know) packing or shading? Especially when wet wiping?
I’ve said it in another post… I’ll say it again here.
If you’re left handed… start from the left/bottom of the tattoo and work your way across. Wipe AWAY from the stencil.
If you’re right handed… start from the right/bottom of the tattoo and work your way across. Wipe AWAY from the stencil.If you’re lines are swelling up so bad that you can’t pack color or shade the skin… seriously, STOP tattooing. You’re doing something WAY wrong.
That’s about the best advice I have on lettering. This post begs too many other questions/answers to cover the stencil process, lining process and shading process all in one post.
Just remember… we love our clients, they’re our bread and butter… but clients (99.9995% of the time) are like cattle; we herd them down the magic chute that delivers money to our pockets. Most of them don’t know shit about picking a tattoo design and they know NOTHING about how to pull one off. You give them the options that you know will work. This way they get good tattoos and you develop a good reputation.
Every bad tattoo you do will haunt you.
Good luck. :mrgreen:
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