Tuffen West is known today as a British engraver and lithographer, active in the last half of the 19th century, who produced illustrations of the microscopic for the scientific and popular press. However, in his time, he was also recognized as a naturalist. He was ’FLS’, an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, also ’FRMS’, an elected member of the Royal Microscopical Society, and authored many articles in scientific and popular journals. Tuffen West was then much more than a ’microscopic artist’ as he described himself. In this appreciation of Tuffen West, his troubled life is reviewed, his considerable contributions as an illustrator are documented, and his achievements as a naturalist and populiser of microscopy are shown.