Roman Numeral Tattoo Date Converter

Quick answer: write each part of the date on its own — the month, the day and the year — and join them the way you want them inked: December 25, 2020 is XII.XXV.MMXX month first, or XXV.XII.MMXX day first. Pick your date above: the converter reads every part back, so you can check it before the needle does.

How to use it

Choose a date, a year or any number, then the order (month · day · year is the US way, day · month · year most of the rest of the world) and what goes between the parts — dots, middle dots, dashes or spaces. Say how long the line will be on your skin and tap a lettering style: you get the height of the capitals, what the guides say about that size, and the numerals drawn at true size with a ruler. Your date never goes into the page address; Copy link to this date makes a link that carries it.

How Roman numerals are written

Seven symbols — in Britannica’s words, “the symbols I, V, X, L, C, D, and M stand respectively for 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 in the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.” Two rules join them: “A symbol placed after another of equal or greater value adds its value.” and “A symbol placed before one of greater value subtracts its value.” And a limit: “Usually only three identical symbols can be used consecutively; to express numbers beginning with a 4 or a 9, a symbol is placed before one of greater value to subtract its value”.

Today’s standard form uses six subtractive pairs — IV (4), IX (9), XL (40), XC (90), CD (400) and CM (900) — and, as Wikipedia puts it, “These are the only subtractive forms in standard use.” A number is written digit by digit: “A number containing two or more decimal digits is built by appending the Roman numeral equivalent for each, from highest to lowest”, and “Any missing place (represented by a zero in the place-value equivalent) is omitted”. So 1990 is M (1000) + CM (900) + XC (90) = MCMXC. “The largest number that can be represented in this manner is 3,999” — past that, “A bar called a vinculum placed over a number multiplies its value by 1,000.”

Why clocks write IIII

Look at a clock face and four is often IIII. Britannica: “The exceptions are 4,000, which is sometimes written as MMMM, and clocks, which usually display 4 as IIII.” The Seiko Museum: “In the middle ages in Europe, IIII was generally used, not IV, to express the Roman numeral 4 until around the 17th century.” Both are real; this converter writes the standard IV and never mixes the two. If you want the clock’s IIII on your skin, say so to your artist — and use it everywhere in the date.

Days and months 1 to 31

Years 1950 to 2029

Worked examples

• February 14, 2015, month first, dots: II.XIV.MMXV — read back II = 2, XIV = 14, MMXV = 2015.
• July 4, 1999, day first, spaces: IV VII MCMXCIX — the day is IV and the month VII; with the month first it would be VII IV MCMXCIX.
• The year 1990 alone: MCMXC.
• The number 44: XLIV — XL (40) and IV (4), never XXXXIIII.

Common mistakes

• Converting the whole year as pieces. 1990 is MCMXC, not XIX XC (19 and 90).
• Four of a kind. 40 is XL, not XXXX; 9 is IX, not VIIII.
• Mixing IIII and IV in the same date.
• Forgetting the order. III.IV.MMXX is March 4 to an American and 3 April to most of the world — decide which you mean and keep it.
• Not checking. Even a film’s copyright notice went wrong: “1944 = M + CM + XL + IV = MCMXLIV (erroneous copyright notice of the 1954 movie The Last Time I Saw Paris” (Wikipedia).

Frequently asked questions

On Needle Style

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