Tattoo Size Chart & Session Time

Quick answer: a small tattoo is 2 to 4 inches (5–10 cm) along its longest edge, medium 4 to 6 inches (10–15 cm), large 6 to 10 inches and extra large anything bigger (Hyper Inkers; Firme Copias agrees on small and medium). A small piece takes about 1 to 3 hours, a medium one 3 to 5 — Skin Design Tattoos’ chart runs longer. The tool above draws your size true to scale.

How to use it

Measure the longest edge of your design — its height or its width, whichever is bigger — and type it in inches or centimetres, or tap a common size. Pick where it is going. You get what each of three guides calls that size, the hours it usually takes, whether it sits inside the inches each guide lists for that body area, and a square of that size drawn on your screen next to a US quarter. Check your screen once with a real quarter or a ruler and the drawing is true to size; the scale is kept on your device.

Two of the guides measure the same way. Hyper Inkers: “Tattoo dimensions come down to one number: the design’s longest edge.” Skin Design Tattoos: “Tattoo artists use inches to determine the total size of your desired body art.”

Tattoo size chart

The five ranges are Hyper Inkers’, with its centimetres, its everyday object and its hours. The last three columns are the other guides on the same sizes: what Firme Copias Tattoo Studio and Skin Design Tattoos call a size at the start of the range, and Skin Design Tattoos’ hours across it.

Where a size sits exactly on a line — 4 inches, say — the tool puts it in the bigger range for every guide. That is Hyper Inkers’ own rule: “Each inch range starts where the smaller one ends, so a 4 inch design lands in the medium range and a 6 inch design lands in the large range.” Applying it to the other two guides is ours.

What size fits where

The inches each guide lists for a body area, measured along its length. Where they disagree, the tool shows all of them.

Skin Design Tattoos’ numbers are the rows of its chart that name each area; Hyper Inkers’ collarbone row is a chest-and-collarbone panel, which is why it runs larger. Firme Copias gives no number for the ribs: “Ribs: Size varies, but detail must be simplified”.

How long does a tattoo take?

Mostly, as long as its size. Hyper Inkers’ examples: a 2 inch piece “usually takes 1–2 hours from stencil to wrap”; at 4 inches, “These tattoos typically take 3–4 hours to complete”; at 6 inches, “These tattoos usually take 6–8 hours and may require multiple sessions”. Skin Design Tattoos’ chart runs longer at every size past 3 inches and says it is a rough guide: “Our tattoo size and time chart serve merely for orientation.” On sessions, it adds: “A single session takes about two hours. But if you and the artist can handle it, it can extend up to five hours.” Detail, colour, the spot and the artist all move the number — the free Tattoo Cost Calculator turns the hours into a price.

Worked examples

A 1-inch symbol on the wrist: micro or tiny to Hyper Inkers, extra small to Firme Copias, small to Skin Design Tattoos; under 1 hour by Hyper Inkers’ chart, 2 to 3 by Skin Design’s. Inside every guide’s range for a wrist.

A 4-inch flower on the wrist: medium to all three guides, 3 to 8 hours between them — and bigger than any of them lists for a wrist. Hyper Inkers: “A wrist runs out at about 3 inches, and anything past that starts wrapping around the joint”. A forearm takes it inside every guide’s range.

A 10 cm piece on the calf: 3.9 inches, so small to Hyper Inkers and Firme Copias and medium to Skin Design Tattoos, 1 to 5 hours. It falls between the guides for a calf: bigger than Skin Design Tattoos’ 2 to 3 inches, smaller than the other two’s 4 to 8.

Common mistakes

• Going too small for the detail. Hyper Inkers: “A 1 inch flower on a forearm reads as a smudge from a few feet away, while a 4 inch version of the same flower stays legible across a room.” Firme Copias: “When clients come in asking for a highly detailed piece at 3 inches, artists will often recommend scaling up.”
• Measuring the area, not the edge. Two guides size a design by its longest edge; a 3 by 1 inch script is a 3 inch tattoo.
• Taking one chart’s hours as a promise. The guides differ by hours at the same size, and every artist works at their own pace.

Ideas to size

Needle Style has mandala wrist tattoos, shoulder tattoos for women, butterfly tattoos, leg sleeve tattoos and biblical sleeve tattoos. Before you book, the Tattoo Pain Chart rates each spot, and the Tattoo Healing Tracker counts the days after.

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