Portrait tattoos are meant to resemble an exact photograph more so that an artist's rendering. They are highly detailed and require a large, relatively flat area of your body to display adequately. Since the details are so vivid, only employ an experienced artist when considering a portrait tattoo of your child. Choose your favorite photograph of your child and give it to your artist for stenciling and to be used as a guide when tattooing. Traditional portraits are done in black and gray, but you can choose to incorporate colors if you wish.
There are hundreds if not thousands of fonts and styles to choose from when selecting a script tattoo, each with varying degrees of detail and difficulty. Generally, the more detailed a font, the larger the letters will need to be so as not to appear jumbled. Always investigate a variety of fonts to determine which best fits your desired tattoo size. Those who would like to make the tattoo a little more personal and less generic can also design the font themselves. Or, if your child is old enough to write, consider having him design it.
Most birth certificates include the hand and foot prints of your child. You or your artist can trace this print and develop an identical copy that can be stenciled and tattooed. Choose to use solid black ink for the tattoo so it matches the appearance of the ink prints, or use artistic license to color or shade the prints another way. For instance, if you are of Irish dissent, you may want to color the prints to mirror the Irish flag.
Incorporate your child's initials and birth date into another larger tattoo or simply represent them on their own. As with a script name tattoo, the font and style of the letters and numbers will dictate the appropriate size of the characters. Or you can design them on your own. You can also introduce these letters and numbers as an alphanumeric code on a license plate or bar code, such as JQP09091983 for John Q. Public, Sept. 9, 1983.