Sheet of black script lettering samples spelling Alis volat propriis in several calligraphic styles, shown on a plain white background with no body placement.

Script lettering samples in several fonts

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

A sheet of black on white lettering samples, each setting the Latin phrase Alis volat propriis in a different script or calligraphic typeface. The samples vary in weight, slant, loops and flourishes, from fine hairline strokes to bold, heavily looped capitals. The layout is a simple stacked list on a plain white background with no shading or colour.

Lettering Script Lettering Calligraphy Latin phrase

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mr Hebden had sent the sheet down from Newcastle with a note that said only choose one. Twelve hands, he had written, twelve ways of saying the same thing, and the owner of the Maud Ellen wanted it on her transom by Friday. I laid the paper flat on the bench at the back of the shop, weighed its corners down with my paint pots, and did not choose anything for most of the morning.

Keep reading

The fine copperplate looked like a bird's first attempt at flight, all hairline and no nerve. The bold capitals stood on the page like a man in his Sunday boots, and someone had given the A a curl like a loose rope. I copied each one onto scrap board with my number three brush, dipping and lifting, until my wrist ached and the lamp had burned down to its last inch. Ruth from next door brought tea and said the shipwright would not wait for a girl who could not make up her mind.

I had thought the choice would be about beauty. It was really about who would be reading it. Men on the quay take in a sign at a glance, and a heavy hand carries in a gale, but the owner's wife would stand at the rail and read it slowly, the way you read a letter from someone far off. So I took the slanting one, with the long tail on the p that dipped below the line like a kite string, and painted the whole phrase onto the transom in one pull.

When the varnish dried, the motto ran along the stern in pale gold, leaning forward as if into a wind. Ruth held the lamp up and said the letters looked halfway to the sea already. I took the sheet of samples home that night and pinned it above my bed, and I still look at the bold capital A when the boats go out, thinking how little it had needed to be loud.