Engraving
What is Engraving?
FAQ
Engraving
Engraving
Engraving
What is Engraving?
FAQ
Engraving
Engraving tattoos look like an old etching or woodcut: parallel and cross-hatching, with volume built from the density of the line.
Engraving carries the intaglio and burin work of the 16th to 18th centuries onto skin: natural history plates, the frontispieces of old books, banknotes and maps. Parallel and cross-hatching, volume built from the density of the line, no smooth grey shading, and light that is never anything but skin left between two strokes. Two source techniques shape it. The copperplate look, from burin engraving and etching, gives fine, supple hatching able to model subtle volume; the woodcut look, from blocks cut in wood, gives thicker strokes, harder contrast and some solid black — the first makes volume, the second makes mass. Its subjects follow its sources: what the old plates depicted, from the naturalist specimen to the emblem. It differs from Dotwork in its mark — one lays down dots, the other strokes — and it gives a drier, more graphic, older result. It's a style of great elegance that demands an uncommon steadiness of hand, since the spacing of the hatching has to stay constant across a whole volume. It pairs very well with Dotwork, which takes over in the softest transitions, and with old-style lettering, with which it shares its sources. It needs size to keep its hatching open, on a forearm, a thigh, a calf or a back: over the years the strokes spread, and hatching set too tight runs together into flat grey.
On YokoFolio, pick the style Engraving and then your city, and widen the radius if the list is short. There's one test, and it's merciless: the spacing of the hatching. In healed photos the strokes should still breathe — if they've run together into grey, they were too tight when they went in. Look at the evenness too: engraving hatching is judged on how constant its spacing stays, from one end of a volume to the other, and on strokes that stay straight and parallel where they should. Then check that each subject still reads from a distance, not only up close. Ask the artist how they adapt an old print to skin, and what size your design needs so its finest hatching stays open over the years.
Old and scientific imagery suits it naturally: skulls, insects, plants, animals, hands, astrolabes, star charts, maps, allegories. The Flammarion engraving — the missionary pushing his head through the vault of the sky — is one of the most requested designs in the style, and it sits well on a thigh or a back. Natural history plates are an obvious source, since they were drawn to be read clearly. Pick a subject whose silhouette reads from a distance: the hatching gives the relief, it doesn't hold the drawing up on its own. If you bring a reference from an old book, expect the artist to redraw it rather than copy it line for line: the hatching has to be spaced for skin, not for paper.
The strokes spread over the years, and the tightest hatching ends up running together: an area of shadow built from very close strokes turns into flat grey, and the volume flattens. That's the one real risk in this style. So an experienced artist spaces the hatching more than seems necessary — a fresh engraving piece should look slightly too light. Size works the same way: the bigger the design, the more room each stroke has, which is why small engraving pieces lose their detail first. Areas that rub or see a lot of sun blur and fade the hatching faster. Drawn properly and given enough room, it keeps its relief for a very long time; healed photos a few years old will show you how an artist's spacing holds.
Illustrative is outlined and shaded however the artist likes — smooth grey, stippling, color, some hatching — with the feel of a book illustration; Engraving builds every tone from lines alone, parallel and crossed, with no smooth grey, and looks like a print pulled from an old plate. Sketch also uses hatching, but loose and quick, crossing at free angles, with construction lines left in view and edges left unfinished; Engraving's hatching is ordered, evenly spaced and finished from edge to edge. In other words, Sketch shows the drawing being made, and Engraving shows the plate after the engraver's last stroke. If every shadow is made of regular parallel or crossed lines, like an old print, it's Engraving.
Ready for an Engraving tattoo?
Compare Engraving tattoo artists near you.