Tattoo font generator

Tattoo lettering covers the hands tattooists reach for most: fine-line script, Old English blackletter, brush script and the spurred capitals of traditional rock flash. What they share is a shape that still reads when the skin moves and the ink spreads over the years.

Trying a phrase, a name or a date before the appointment, and showing the artist the font you like. The artist redraws the lettering to fit your body, so treat the PNG as a guide rather than a stencil.

Mrs Saint Delafield is the fine-line script, with by far the shortest small letters of the four, so its words need room. UnifrakturCook is a heavy Fraktur that comes in bold only; Kaushan Script is a brush script with rough edges; New Rocker, the widest and heaviest, carries the pointed spurs of rock lettering.

Lay the transparent PNG over a photo of the arm, wrist or ankle, lower its transparency until the skin shows through, and scale it to the size you have in mind. A fine script that looks right on screen can turn out smaller than you thought on the body.

A Cricut cuts stencils for paint and vinyl, not for skin. For a shirt or a decal in tattoo lettering, New Rocker and UnifrakturCook cut cleanly, while Mrs Saint Delafield’s fine strokes only hold up very large.

To see the real size on paper, insert the PNG, set its width under Picture Format, Size to the width the tattoo will have, and print at 100%.

The steps for any style, the PNG and the SVG into each app, what the licences allow and what happens to your words, are on the font generator.