French tattoo: best ideas and meaning

French lettering: meaning and symbolism

French has a reputation as the most elegant language for lettering, and plenty of people choose it for the sound and rhythm rather than any link to France. A sentence in it reads soft and literary, which suits phrases about love, freedom and letting go.

The most common requests are c'est la vie in the sense of that's life, la vie est belle for life is beautiful, je t'aime, la vie en rose, and single words such as liberté and toujours. The second group is verses and song lyrics, usually chosen by people with a personal attachment to one particular artist.

Accents and apostrophes: where it goes wrong

French rests on its diacritics and every mark does a job: é, è, ê, à, ç. Most tattoo fonts do not contain them, so they have to be drawn in by hand, exactly as with Czech lettering. The most frequent mistake is an accent leaning the wrong way – the difference between é and è is visible at a glance and changes both pronunciation and meaning.

The second trap is the apostrophe. In forms like c'est or l'amour it should be a proper typographic apostrophe, not a quotation mark or a comma floating above the line. And mind the cédille under the c: at small sizes it merges into the body of the letter, so it needs a little extra room.

Styles, designs and placement

Fine script leads our gallery, which suits French naturally, with plain sans-serif for shorter phrases. The lettering usually sits on one line, longer quotes on two, often joined by a small symbol – a heart, a flower, a star – or a red accent.

We most often tattoo French lettering on the forearm, collarbone, ribs, neck and inner arm. The pieces are delicate and heal quickly.

Our artists will draw the accents so they look like part of the typeface rather than an addition. We work in English, Czech and Russian.