With lettering there's nowhere to hide. A crooked letter, a wrong spacing, a typo — it all stays visible forever. That makes script one of the most honest styles: either it sits, or you see it instantly. Good lettering is 90 percent preparation: typeface, flow, placement, spacing.
At our tattoo studio in Hamburg two artists do this. Paco brings his graffiti past — letters are the craft there. Lennart likes to work script into sombre compositions, where it becomes part of the image instead of just sitting on top.
We tattoo in Hamburg-Borgfelde, a few minutes from the main station.
Check the text three times. We do too — but in the end it's your words on your skin. With foreign languages, quotes and names, check once too often rather than once too little.
Script follows the body. Lettering has to run with muscle and body lines, otherwise it looks stuck on. That's why the final shape often only emerges on the body, not on a screen.
Too fine becomes unreadable. Very thin, very small script closes up over the years. We'll tell you the size your typeface needs to stay readable.