While tattooed words once acted largely as a form of ID for gangsters and city gangs, the trend is now much further-reaching and has permeated society at every level. Writings in Chicano, the commonest tattooing letter style, was once the calling card of Mexican criminals. Yet Chicano, like Gothic, draws its inspiration from the art of calligraphy.

STUDENTS OF CALLIGRAPHY
Up until half a century ago handwriting was actually a school subject. In the 1950s Italian students still had their hour of calligraphy ("calligraphy" literally means "beautiful writing") and learnt to write in Gothic and Italics (also called Cursive); using a pen-nib inserted into a straw or a stylus (there were various nib types) they outlined letters of varying boldness according to the required style. This technique of writing, in which ink is applied on paper using a pen-nib or a brush, is also called pen and ink.

In the 60s the fountain pen made its appearance in Italian school: handwriting was no longer a subject in itself, but if it was done well it would usually ensure higher marks in all other subjects. Even in the 60s and 70s it was compulsory for Italian primary school pupils to use lined exercise books with varying inter-line gaps: narrow to set the height of lower-case letters, wide for upper-case letters or to establish the upper/lower limits of lower-case letters like g, o, l s and h. The lined paper is one of the principal tools for a calligrapher also today.

LEARNING THE ART AND PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
For decades calligraphy was confined to specialist area, such as the lettering in comics. The term lettering refers to all the written parts of a comic: dialogues between characters, captions, onomatopoeia and titles. While lettering is now largely composed on computers, in the past it was entirely handwritten by professionals called letterers.
Today some Italian editors continue to appreciate this manual art and still publish comics with handwritten lettering: Bonelli, the Dylan Dog publisher, is one of them.

Yet calligraphy doesn't end with comics. In artistic calligraphy and in graphic design it is used, among other things, to create logos and scripts, or new fonts that are then marketed for use in software. Then there are the outstanding professionals of the field such as Daniel Reeve, the artist commissioned by movie director Peter Jackson to create the old-style documents and maps seen in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

WRITINGS IN VIP TATTOOS
Angelina Jolie has a tattoo that says «know your rights» and another with a phrase in Latin. Tattooing Christian names is also popular with the famous. Football stars such as David Beckham, Fabio Cannavaro and Ronaldo have had their children's name tattooed on their skin. Fernando Torres, a footballer on Spain's national team, has had his name tattooed in the language of the Elves.
Allen Iverson is as famous for his tattooed writings, which allude to a past in street gangs, as he is for being a world-class basketball player; the names of his wife and children also decorate his skin.

by Mary Tiussi
English translation by Stephen Michael Davies

DON'T MISS THIS SPECIAL! Alphabets & Tattoo Names
If you're thinking of going for a lettered tattoo, you'll want to check out our Lettering Tattoo special, which contains endless examples with names and initials from over 40 different alphabets.
You'll find the most in-vogue styles of the moment such as Chicano, calligraphic and American old style, together with Old and Modern Gothic - not to mention a host of highly imaginative ‘fantasy' alphabets.