Need ideas on tachometer using ignition

This would be an inductive sensor when you're wrapping a wire around the spark plug wire. The current flowing through the spark plug wire induces a current in your coil.

The Arduino pins are protected by what are called "clamping diodes" that will protect the pins from high voltage currents under 1ma. I wouldn't expect to see more current than that from your inductive sensor unless you use a large number of wraps of wire, but if you want to add additional protection you would add a resistor between the coil and Arduino input as well as a 5.1V zener diode between the input and ground (coil -> resistor -> zener cathode -> analog input). Zeners are like regular diodes conducting from anode to cathode with a .7V drop, but also conduct cathode to anode when the voltage is over their rated breakdown voltage.

How many times you should wrap a wire around the spark plug wire and what size resistor you should use is hard to say. Perhaps the simplest way to test would be to connect both ends of your coil to an LED and judge by the brightness of that LED.

Expect a lot of electrical noise to mess with your readings as well. That is why there aren't any "easy" schematics used in this situation.