Close-up of small black Vida Mágica lettering tattoo on the inner forearm of a person wearing a black top.

Vida Mágica lettering on a forearm

Lettering · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

The photograph shows the words VIDA MÁGICA tattooed in black capital letters on the inner forearm, with the accent on the second word. The lettering has a casual, hand-drawn feel with uneven strokes and solid black ink. The arm fills the left side of the frame against a plain light background, with a dark top and jeans visible on the right.

Lettering Forearm Word Text

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

Brother Anselmo had been told twice to take the accent off the sign. The abbot stood in the cloister with his hands folded into his sleeves and watched the brush hover over the second word. "Magic is not a Portuguese affair," he said. "We are a house of plain bread."

Keep reading

Anselmo dipped the brush in the black ink he used for psalters, the same ink that had kept the monastery's ledgers legible since the flood of the old century. He had painted the sign that morning in capitals, letters leaning like men against a wind, and the accent was the last thing left to add. Beyond the wall, the bells of the village below rang for the fishermen coming in off the Minho.

"The accent tells the reader where to lean," he said. "Without it, the word falls over."

The abbot said nothing for a long while. Then he went to the gate, where a cart of late apples waited for the carter, and laid his palm on the timber. Under the new paint, the old carved name of the house showed through, worn almost smooth. "Paint it, then," he said. "But when the carter asks what it means, you tell him."

Anselmo finished the mark in one stroke, a small slant over the A, and when the ink dried it looked like a bird that had just decided to land.