Sunday, November 15, 2009

Kids and Tattoos

I know I wrote a post earlier this week about letting your children get a tattoo when they are of age. But I wanted to touch on this topic as well. First of all when your children are little and beg you to put a temporary tattoo on them you do it without thinking twice. But is the only reason you do this is because you know it will wash off in a couple of days? I mean yes I understand that real tattoos and temporary tattoos are not the same thing by all means. But if you are not careful your children may fall in love so much with those temporary tattoos that they will want a real one when they turn 18. So my question is to everyone out there, should you let your children where temporary tattoos if you have a problem with them wanting to get a real one, one day?

I for one will vouch for this. I always wanted a tattoo since I was like 8 or so. And of course I always wanted to wear temporary tattoos because I wanted one so bad. And in case you are wondering, yes I wear temporary tattoos until I got my real one.

So parents you may want to think twice about wetting down the temporary tattoo and applying it to your child's skin because the next words that come out of their mouth could be, "I want a real tattoo." I guess you can hope they either grow out of it or forget about it. But if your kids are like me they will have that love for tattoos their whole life.


Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Kids-and-Tattoos&id=1638878

Friday, November 13, 2009

Hot Tattoo Lettering Designs and Ideas For Cool Word Tattoo Designs

It seems like one of the most popular trends in tattooing these days are literary or word tattoo designs. People both men and women are getting written tattoos now more than ever before. However, there are many different styles to choose from and a lot of different options so before you run out and get your tattoo lettering design you should think about how you want the font to look and what you want to write.

The History of Word Tattoo Designs

You see written words have been a part of tattoos for a long time. However, it wasn't until recently that the words became the tattoo itself. It used to be that the words were used to embellish and enhance the tattoo design. For example an anchor tattoo might have the words "home sweet home" written under it. Another example might be the classic heart tattoo with the letters mom written under it. You get the idea here lettering used to be an extra piece to add on. However, these days tattoo lettering and literary tattoos have taken the main stage and they are no longer part of the embellishment but they are part of the tattoo itself.

Different Font Styles

There are many different styles of fonts and new fonts being created every day. The possibilities are unlimited and you can even custom design or have a custom designed font created for your tattoo if you want. However, some of the most common fonts that are used in tattoos are below. These are broad categories and there obviously are many more options within each category.

Celtic - A beautiful lettering font for tattoo designs. The Celtic's were the first to create illuminated manuscripts of the Bible and therefore had perfected the art of calligraphy. There are a few different styles that can fall under the Celtic look. These can include everything from the ornate illuminated capital letters to a simple uncials font. There are so many options and if you are getting a quote or saying that is Irish, Celtic or European you might want to consider a Celtic font.

Gothic - Gothic of course came from the calligraphers that were writing the Bible during the Gothic era. Gothic letters are often very ornate with lots of embellishments. This has been used heavily in gangster tattoos but can also be used in any kind of tattoo letter design. There are a wide variety of different gothic fonts everything from really heavy black lines to much lighter and flowing lines. Gothic fonts can often look great as a literary tattoo.

Calligraphy - Calligraphy of course is a very general terms and can actually be applied to any of the above letter styles also as they are all calligraphy. In reality calligraphy is any type of fancy writing. However over the history of calligraphy most people have come to associate the certain fonts with what is called calligraphy. These are always written with a calligraphic pen and have the distinct look and feel. They pen his a wedge at a 45 degree angle creating bold down strokes and thin diagonal strokes. Again there are many different types and styles of calligraphy and they can make the font or the tattoo look very different so you should carefully consider the options.


Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Hot-Tattoo-Lettering-Designs-and-Ideas-For-Cool-Word-Tattoo-Designs&id=3137481

Japanese Tattoo Tradition - Kanji Tattoos

Today, everybody has at least an idea of what a kanji character is. Not that any of us would be able to read and understand the meaning of a particular kanji symbol, but everyone has at least already heard about kanji. That's because of the increasingly popularity of the so called Kanji tattoos.

The western countries have found out how beautiful eastern languages can be, as we all started getting exotic characters inked on our skin.

Chinese, Japanese, Arabian and many other different foreign languages are being more and more translated into the international art of tattooing. Japan tattoos are most beloved for their beauty and powerful symbolism.

Kanji is one of the three "alphabet system" (which is not correct, as it can be hardly defined an alphabet) used in Japan written language.

The written Japan is made up of four different character systems: Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana and Romaji, which is the way they call the Latin alphabet.

Learning to write Japan means to learn all of these systems. The number of characters the Japan written language consists in is incalculable. Only in the Kanji system the number of possible characters is disputed: between 50.000 and 80.000 symbols!!!

Of course not all of these characters are commonly used; most of those fifty thousands consist of obscure variations nobody would ever use.

Another particular aspect of the Kanji characters, often categorized in tattoo websites under Japan tattoo designs, is that they are not really a Japan product. They were used many, many years before in China, where they were invented. The first sign of such characters in Japan goes back to the 57 AD. At that time, the Japanese language itself had no written form at all.

Today Kanji is commonly considered to be a part of the Japanese written language.

These elegant but extremely expressive symbols are getting more and more popularity among tattoo enthusiasts all over the world. The reason behind this popularity is to be sought in the mix of beauty, elegance, mystery and exotic symbolism that can be found in every single Kanji tattoo.


Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Japanese-Tattoo-Tradition---Kanji-Tattoos&id=3194747

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Small Dragon Tattoos - Stop Using the Old School Approach

You know what? I'm sick of scouring the net just to find a few decent looking small dragon tattoos. There's a sea of drab looking designs on the internet and they all look identical to me. Because of this painful experience, I decided to seek alternate routes for finding uncommon designs.

If you've been searching for small dragon tattoos via typical search engines like Google or Yahoo, then you don't know what you're missing! Stop looking for tattoo art like the vast majority of people on this planet; otherwise, you'll wind up inking your skin with designs that are similar to the vast majority of people on this planet! You want top-notch uniqueness? Check out the tips below:

• Search for tattoo ideas by browsing through fantasy art books or websites. A few favorite artists of mine are Steven A Roberts, Frank Frazetta and the dynamic couple, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.

• Since you want small dragon tattoos, I urge you to practice simplicity due to the fact that tooting up a small design with all kinds of details would make your tattoo look cheesy. Also note that the aging process of a tattoo means that the small ink on your skin will muss up terribly in say, 4 to 5 years time. If you insist on adding more intricate details, then go for a medium or large size tattoo.

• Browse through membership-based tattoo art galleries. This is my favorite way of finding loads of wicked looking small dragon tattoos. Every time I browse through my favorite gallery, my head is constantly pelted with so many tattoo ideas, what with all the unique and constant artwork updates, image uploading feature so I can get valuable feedback from fellow members, the two-in-one tattoo combination feature, video vault, etc.

So what are you waiting for? Start looking for design ideas by scouring works of fantasy artists or membership tattoo sites, opt for simplicity and most of all stop, searching for tattoo ideas the old school way.



Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Small-Dragon-Tattoos---Stop-Using-the-Old-School-Approach&id=2711960