Morse Code Tattoo Generator

How to use the generator

1. Type your text. A name, a date, a word or a short phrase, up to 40 characters.
2. Pick a style. Round gives round dots and dashes with rounded ends, Square gives sharp blocks, and On a line sets the marks on a thin line that runs through the whole design.
3. Adjust it. Choose the line weight, read it across or from top to bottom, separate words with a gap or a slash, and show the letters if you want them in the design or just as a guide. In Classic the marks are as thick as a dot is long; Medium and Fine line keep exactly the same lengths and spacing with thinner marks, so their dots become short bars.
4. Set the size. Pick a dash length and the generator shows how long the whole design will be. The SVG download comes out at that size when printed at 100% scale.
5. Check and download. Preview it on paper or on a few skin tones, read the code under the preview, then download an SVG or a PNG, or copy the code as text.

Morse code tattoo ideas

Short texts make the cleanest tattoos. Press Use this on any idea to load it into the generator above and try it in other styles.

• A date: a birthday or an anniversary. Read the tip on dates below first.
• Matching tattoos: the same word for two people, or one phrase split between them.
• Jewelry instead: the Morse code bracelet maker turns the same text into a bead pattern.
• Something longer: there is a whole page on I love you in Morse code, and the Morse code translator converts any text.

Placement and size

The generator shows how long your design will be for the dash length you pick. With 5 mm dashes, Mom is about 5.2 cm (2.0 in) from end to end, Hope about 6.5 cm (2.6 in) and I love you about 15.5 cm (6.1 in).

• Wrist and forearm: a name or a single word, read across.
• Finger: initials or a very short word along the side of the finger, if the length at your chosen dash size fits.
• Collarbone and ankle: a word or a short phrase, read across.
• Spine and ribs: longer phrases, often from top to bottom.

Fine lines look delicate, but very fine lines and tiny dots are the parts most likely to blur over the years. If you want the design small, ask your artist which line weight and dash length will hold up best.

Getting the code right

• Keep the gaps. The space between letters and the wider space between words carry the meaning. Evenly spaced dots and dashes spell something else.
• Make dashes clearly longer than dots. The generator draws each dash three times as long as a dot, the same ratio as in sound.
• Check it two ways. Press Copy code, paste it into the Morse code translator and choose Decode it. Then check the final stencil letter by letter against the Morse code alphabet, which follows the ITU standard, so a mistake in a design app cannot slip through.
• Mind the spelling. Morse code has no capital letters. International Morse code has only one accented letter, É (..-..), so this generator writes other letters with the closest plain ones: ñ as N, ü as U, ø as O, æ as AE.
• Shorten dates. Every digit is five dots and dashes, so 06 21 2015 is already 40 symbols. Leave out leading zeros or the first two digits of the year (6 21 15 is 25), and separate the numbers with spaces rather than dots or slashes, which add more symbols.

What a Morse code tattoo means

A Morse code tattoo is a message in plain sight: most people see a row of dots and dashes, and only those who know the code, or who you tell, can read it. That is why the most common choices are personal ones: the name of someone you love or have lost, a date that changed your life, or a word to live by. For people who have worked with radio, at sea or in the military, it can also be a nod to the code itself.