4/10/2024 0 Comments Font tattoos numbers and lettersWhen you try to apply text to this living organic medium, the lines waver, the letter size changes, the spacing inside the letter closes up, the spacing between the letters & between the words run together. On top of all that, you’re also flexible, so unless you’ve been stuffed by an expert taxidermist, the minute you move, you will morph into even more elastic contorted shapes. You’re also topographical, with some points rising & dipping dramatically. But its not rounded evenly, like a pole, each surface is tapered, being much wider at some points & narrower at others. You are cylindrical, almost every part of you body is long & rounded. You’re a series of interlocking muscle bands, & you’re covered with skin that is anything but white. You, dear tattoo client, are not flat white paper. Its designed to be read on flat surfaces, with maximum contrast between very dark lettering & very light grounds. Good type is readable because of weight, form, size, leading, tracking, & kerning. Before computers loaded with hundreds of fonts downloaded for free, typography was a specialized profession, & typographers were very proud crafters of type. TEXT TATTOOS DESTROY THE ART OF TYPOGRAPHY: Just like every other art form, typography has its own rules & limitations.I realize it’s a current fad to get scads of text, we see it all the time. This isn’t to discourage anyone from getting tattooed, but rather to look at the broad picture & to help make better tattoo choices. We often turn down requests for massive amounts of type & I wanted to spell out our very concrete reason as to why that is. I’m taking the time to blog about all text tattoos due to the overwhelming amount of lettering we’re doing. If after you read it you STILL want that song lyric. It is without a doubt the most thought provoking piece you’ll ever read on the subject. Written by one of the guys from Seppuku tattoo. And finally I say, before you ask anyone to read your tattoo, read this article below. I have a speech prepared where I ask my clients to get creative, to think outside the box, etc. Every couple weeks I get an email from someone who wants a long sentence, poem, song lyrics or bible verse tattooed on them.
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