Custom Designs

Sometimes people ask for "such and such words in the shape of a heart / of a shamrock / of a Kalashnikov AK-47".

About eighty percent of the time, I have had to answer "I could do that design, but you'd need about two handspans of skin to tattoo it". As it happens, to get simple shapes as a bird (see) you need a lot of Arabic words ("in the name of Allah the merciful the compassionate"), and this means that these designs don't work for a small tattoo. Skin is a very low-rez medium.

The other twenty percent of the time, I tried. Here you can see the results:

A boxing glove drawn with Arabic letters.
My name and my fiancee's in the shape of a shamrock.
My name and my fiancee's in the shape of a heart.
A Coptic cross with my surname.

These only work if:

The shape is very simple, like a heart, triangle, oval, star, shamrock (a shamrock is just four hearts).
There are several words (or we repeat the same word several times)
You plan the tattoo to be at least 150 mm across (see pic at the bottom of this page), or you just want to print it and hang it on the wall, not a tattoo.

I really advise against this kind of designs. Tattoos made with Arabic letters should be simpler, as I see it. If you want something complex, try Mirror Compositions or Rosettes instead; these are cheaper, faster, smaller, and less troublesome.

Glove
tattoos in Arabic
"flying Vixen"

Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/net/tatus/amedida.en.html
Last revised: 2008-05-30

Arabic tattoos

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