![]() Some people come in and say ‘I want this word and this font and I want it here’ then we guide them through things like letter sizes,” Blue explains. “Not every size of letter and not every font works on skin. Ultimately, it’s the role of the artist to guide people into collaboratively coming up with the best solution for the word they want, where they want it, how they want it drawn and ensuring it’s stylistically something suited to their design and personality. ![]() “Personally I like a bold, graphic approach, and I try to do things that are a bit unusual or that not everyone else is doing.” “Once you understand the rules you can make them more gothic or Constructivist,” she says. The letterforms Mishka draws from were traditionally used for icons and religious manuscripts in Cyrillic, but in her tattooing she draws her own versions on graph paper by hand either in English or Russian alphabets. It seems his grounding in graphics and lettering fostered an initial understanding of type forms that was honed as he worked more and more on skin and stepped away from graphics client work. “I was getting tattooed a fair bit while I was working as a designer and then thought it was a gamble worth taking to learn how to do it,” he says. Lord Montana Blue (yes, that’s his real name, not an aristocracy thing) has been working as a tattooist in London’s King’s Cross for the past ten years, having studied a degree that combined fine art and graphic design and working as a freelance graphic designer on graduating. And of course, considerations around kerning, sizing and other typographic technicalities are very different creating designs for skin compared to for print or digital applications. While many tattooists come from an art background, most learn the nuances of letterforms on apprenticeships or on the job. The most common route into tattooing is through apprenticeships, taking anywhere from one to three years, which involve learning the trade on the job as well as studying aspects such as contamination and the more physical risks that could come with badly created work. And while a picture is said to speak a thousand words, sometimes words are exactly what people want on their skin, and so typography and tattooing are disciplines more interlinked than ever. With the rise in inkings and their wider acceptance, we’re seeing far more than traditional roses, swallows, anchors or well-intentioned inscriptions of lovers’ names. According to a piece in The Atlantic, nearly one in five people in the US now sport a tattoo, rising to nearly 40% of marketing’s favourite demographic, those pesky “millennials.” Many people you know probably have one (visible or otherwise), and the tattoo taboo has softened. ![]() Today, however, these countercultural connotations have abated as tattooing has worked its way into the mainstream. Tattoos once served as emblems of defiance, danger and rebellion: images that had mothers weeping and careers advisers holding their heads in despair. Skin deep – typography and tattoos Emily Gosling Inspiration
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |