Lettering & Script Tattoos

Names, quotes, dates and single words. Chicano script, blackletter, fine handwriting and kanji.

15 pieces from the Legian studio

Chest tattoo of the Carroll family name in ornate chicano script with a family crest and scrollwork

Family First chest tattoo in black and grey chicano script, with ornamental lettering across the throat

Large chest script tattoo reading Protect What You Love, with a snarling wolf across the throat

Old English blackletter forearm tattoo reading Lowrider in solid black

Small fine line script tattoo running down a woman's upper spine

Small fine line script tattoo behind the ear on a woman with a shaved undercut

Blackletter name tattoo reading Jenny on the ribs, shaded for a three-dimensional look

Japanese kanji forearm tattoo in bold brushed blackwork

Fine line handwritten script tattoo along a woman's inner forearm

Japanese brush script tattoo in red ink on the upper arm

Fine line script tattoo running the full length of a woman's spine

Japanese spine tattoo in black brush script down a man's upper back

Fine line handwritten script tattoo along a woman's ribs

Inner lip tattoo reading Art in small block letters

Inner lip tattoo reading Lucky You in small block letters

Lettering looks like the simplest thing in the studio and is quietly the most technical. Spacing, weight and flow are the entire job. A beautifully drawn letter in the wrong position next to its neighbour will read as wrong even to someone who could not tell you why.

Two things make the difference. Have the lettering drawn for your body rather than picked from a font, because the curve of a forearm or a ribcage changes how a line of text sits. And have anything in another language checked by a native speaker before it goes on, every time.

We work in chicano script, blackletter, fine handwritten styles, Roman capitals, and Japanese kanji and hiragana. The gallery shows pieces on forearms, spines, ribs and behind the ear, which is where most lettering ends up.

Bring the exact wording with you, written out the way you want it, including punctuation. It is the one style where a detail agreed verbally and then misremembered is genuinely permanent.

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Lettering & Script Tattoos

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