Find me a tattoo font

January 12, 2006 12:57 PM

I'm getting another tattoo. This one on my leg, maybe six inches long. A capital "E" for my grandfather. I'm looking for an elegant yet masculine font. Something with a little flow to it. Suggestions?
posted by captainscared to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

"E" is tricky because most masculine, sans-serif fonts will give you a pretty plain-looking E without much character.

How about Friz Quadrata? It's elegant, but still very strong-looking.
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:06 PM on January 12, 2006

If you want some obscenely ornate blackletter script drop me an email. I have some really crazy ones scanned.
posted by atom128 at 1:11 PM on January 12, 2006

Los Feliz Bold Italic
posted by frogan at 1:15 PM on January 12, 2006

What did he do for a living? You might want to use a font that will further identify the tattoo with him. For example, if he was a writer you might want to use courier. Or if he were in the medical industry, you might want something like this. Just a thought.
posted by ducksauce at 1:39 PM on January 12, 2006

Akzidenz-Grotesk is rather plain, but at least when you tell people the font name it sounds masculine.
posted by shoepal at 1:39 PM on January 12, 2006

Response by poster: duksauce:

he was an engineer. Does that help? Also had really strong, big hands.
posted by captainscared at 1:55 PM on January 12, 2006

Hoefler & Frere Jones have several great thick-n-heavy fonts. Check out Knockout, Saracen, Ziggurat...

Also, the 3 horizontal lines that make up the capital E in their font Gestalt, make for a very strong and beautiful graphic, and somewhat fitting for an engineer.
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:08 PM on January 12, 2006

If he was an engineer, try a blueprint style font, like architect?

(one bonus, since it's a tattoo, you wouldn't need to pay any licensing fees for the font, since it's technically being bitmapped to your leg!)
posted by shepd at 2:19 PM on January 12, 2006

Find a sample of his own handwriting with an uppercase "E," and get a tattoo of your grandfather's actual "E."

I'm assuming that his name began with "E." Use the one from his own signature.
posted by JekPorkins at 2:44 PM on January 12, 2006

I gotta agree with Robot Johnny about Gestalt. Three solid lines looks much better than any regular E would. Simple, strong, solid, and elegant.
posted by team lowkey at 3:48 PM on January 12, 2006

Briar Press Wood Cuts has some cool e's.
posted by Brittanie at 4:25 PM on January 12, 2006

The Sigma Symbol looks a lot like a capital E, but it looks a little more interesting and has mathematical connotations that might make a nice way to commemorate an engineer. The downside is you might have people assuming it's a fraternity type of thing. Don't know if that would bother you or not.
posted by willnot at 4:47 PM on January 12, 2006

Maybe something like this?
posted by trip and a half at 5:23 PM on January 12, 2006

first place i always check for fonts is www.dafont.com. they're all free, categorized, high quality, and honestly some of the best fonts ive ever seen.
posted by deeman at 6:13 PM on January 12, 2006

Font in my collection that look interesting:

Advertising Gothic
Dirty Ego
Shaman
Turok

Of those, I'd probably recommend Shaman.
posted by krisjohn at 7:15 PM on January 12, 2006

posted by Oddly at 7:19 PM on January 12, 2006

Oddly: the ASL e is pretty fantastic, especially given the comment about strong hands.

Of course, most people will think it's some sort of "power", but hey... fuck them!
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:45 PM on January 12, 2006

This is sounding like a reverse–Hanzi Smatter scenario in the making. Always think for a long time, much longer than you suspect you need, about getting a tattoo. Think even longer about typographic tattoos of any kind or in any script.
posted by joeclark at 4:04 PM on January 14, 2006