I think this may have been written before printing was even invented.

That's called blackletter - specifically the textura style. There are a large number of fonts in that style, the classiest/fanciest of which might be this:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/wilhelm-klingspor-gotisch/

One word of warning: any font with such intricate details requires a very good tattoo artist otherwise the results will be a permanent blemish on your existence! :-)

See also this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zara/480154570

hhp

People regularly post on Typophile.com, attaching samples of letterforms they'd like to use for a tattoo, and asking for help with the name of the font. I don't quite understand the question.

I don't have any tattoos, but if I wanted one, I would find a tattoo artist who was an expert at lettering, and then I'd show him/her the sample and say "Please match this style of lettering." The tattoo artist isn't going to stick my butt in an inkjet printer, so why would he/she need to know the name of the font?

I guess they print it out and -somehow- trace it. The good news is you're leveraging the skills of a -hopefully good- type designer. Except that makes it not really lettering, but faux type (which to me can look nice if it's obviously faux).

hhp

Thank you very much for the recommendations and the help hrant this seems to be an excellent community. The reason i wanted the font name was so that i could write out my tattoo and show the artist exactly what i wanted it to look like (the less guess work the better).

Both of my tats were designed on a piece of paper, then transferred to some sort of wet transfer paper and positioned on my arms. Only after my specific approval, he did the job for real.

(They're not typographic. I love fonts ... but every few years I love different ones.)

Thank you, Theunis. It's good to understand the process. I probably won't get inked, though.

Yeah, now that everybody does it the romance is gone.

hhp