A thin film electromagnetic head has an inductive transducer with a double-nosed ferromagnetic trailing pole layer. The trailing pole layer has a trailing pole tip disposed adjacent to a media-facing surface, a trailing pole yoke disposed distal to the media-facing surface, and a trailing pole nose disposed between the trailing pole tip and the trailing pole yoke. The media-facing surface extends as a substantially flat surface in all directions from the trailing pole tip. The length of the trailing pole nose may be at least twice as long as the trailing pole tip length. The width of the trailing pole nose can be 10 to 30 times as wide as the trailing pole tip width. An inductive transducer having a double-nosed trailing pole layer provides a higher ratio of on-track to off-track write fields, thereby improving the density with which data can be written to the recording media. Such a double-nosed trailing pole layer can be used in transducers for either longitudinal or perpendicular magnetic recording.