Family Crest Tattoo Ideas That Work on Skin

Start with your own crest, not someone else's

Many people search for "the family crest" of their surname and get it tattooed. The trouble is that a coat of arms historically belonged to one person or one family line, not to everyone who shares a last name. The shield sold as "the Murphy crest" or "the Smith crest" may have belonged to a family you are not related to at all, and a tattoo is a long time to wear someone else's arms.

If your family has a documented coat of arms, wonderful: research it properly before you commit. If not, the more personal choice is to design your own. Pick colors and an emblem that describe your family as it is, put your name on it, and choose a motto you actually say. The heraldry meanings guide explains what each color and emblem traditionally stands for, and the Latin motto generator has dozens of established mottos with translations.

Design rules that help a crest read on skin

A crest on a wall can carry fine detail. A crest on skin is viewed from farther away, wraps around curves and changes with the years. Experienced artists commonly warn that ink spreads slightly under the skin over time, so tiny details placed close together can blur into each other. That makes heraldry a natural fit, because good heraldry was always meant to be recognized at a distance.

• One bold emblem. A single charge, such as an anchor, a rose, a tree, a lion or a star, reads far better than a shield crowded with symbols. The studio has 50 emblems to choose from.
• Few words. A short family name and a motto of two to four words leave room for letters to stay legible. Small text is usually the first part of a tattoo to lose clarity, so ask your artist how large the lettering needs to be.
• Strong contrast. Heraldry's rule of tincture, a metal (gold or silver) against a color, never color on color, keeps the design clear. In black and grey work, that becomes light against dark.
• Simple divisions. A plain field or one clean line, such as a chevron or a split down the middle, is easier to keep crisp than complex patterns.
• Let size follow detail. If you want more detail, plan for a larger piece. Your artist is the best judge of the smallest size a design will hold up at.

Color, black and grey, or line art

Full color

The classic heraldic look: gold, silver, red, blue, green, purple, black and mulberry. Every example on this page is built from those tinctures.

Black and grey with heraldic hatching

Heralds solved the problem of showing color in black ink centuries ago. The hatching system published by the Jesuit herald Silvester Petra Sancta in Rome in 1638, now used across Europe, gives each tincture its own pattern: dots for gold, plain for silver, vertical lines for red, horizontal lines for blue, diagonal lines for green and purple, and a grid for black. A hatched crest tells anyone who knows heraldry exactly which colors your arms have, without a drop of colored ink. It is a lovely idea for black and grey work, though fine hatching needs enough size to stay readable, so talk it through with your artist.

Line art

Outlines only, with no fills. This is the version most artists find easiest to turn into a stencil and adapt to their own style, whether that is traditional, fine line or blackwork.

What to bring to your tattoo artist

1. A vector file. An SVG scales to any size without blurring, so your artist can print a stencil at exactly the size you agree on. Every paid set includes an SVG of your crest.
2. The line art and hatched versions. The $19 Heirloom set adds a line-art SVG and PNG (outlines only, made for tattoo stencils, embroidery and hand painting), a two-tone version in solid black and white, and the traditional hatched engraving.
3. The meaning. The certificate of arms spells out your design in heraldic language (the blazon) and in plain English, which helps your artist understand what matters most if anything needs simplifying.
4. An open mind. Most good artists will want to redraw or adjust a design for your skin and the spot you choose. That is a strength, not a problem. Ask to see healed photos of their past work, since a fresh tattoo always looks crisper than it will once healed.

Thinking of a matching crest for siblings or a whole family? Everyone can wear the same design, or one shared shield with a different motto each. For other ways to use the same artwork, see family crest gifts, and for a symbol of new beginnings, the phoenix crest guide.

Design your tattoo crest

More free heraldry tools