Printable tattoo size chart

Updated 2026-09-22

This tattoo size chart is a sheet to print rather than a picture to squint at: nested squares from 1 × 1 to 6 × 6 inches, an inch ruler, a centimeter ruler, and a frame at your own design's size if you add one. Printed at 100% scale, the 2 × 2 square measures 50.8 mm a side.

Units

Your design, width in inches

Your design, height in inches

Leave both fields empty for the standard chart. The file is drawn in this browser tab, and nothing you type leaves it.

Squares from 1 × 1 in to 6 × 6 in. The largest is 152.4 × 152.4 mm on paper.Add a width and height to draw your own design at its exact size and see its chair time.This preview is scaled to fit your screen, so its squares are not to size. The printed sheet is.

Print at 100% scale with any fit-to-page or shrink-to-fit option turned off. Then measure the printout: the inch ruler must read 6 in, which is 152.4 mm. If it reads anything else, every square on the sheet is off by the same amount.

180 × 245 mm sheet, fits US Letter and A4

How to use the tattoo size chart

The preview above is scaled to your screen; the file you download is drawn in millimeters for a printer. Only the file is to size, so the steps end at a ruler rather than at the screen.

Step 1Pick inches or centimetersInches draw squares from 1 to 6 in, centimeters from 2.5 to 15 cm. Both sheets carry an inch ruler and a centimeter ruler.
Step 2Add your design’s size, if you have oneType the width and height from your reference or your artist’s quote. A dashed frame appears at exactly that size.
Step 3Download the SVG and print it at 100%Print from a browser with the scale at 100% and fit-to-page off. The 180 × 245 mm sheet is smaller than US Letter and A4.
Step 4Measure the ruler before trusting a squareLay a ruler along the printed inch ruler. 6 inches must read 152.4 mm; if they do not, every square is off by the same factor.

Then cut. Every square shares the bottom-left corner, so cutting along one outline leaves a clean square of that size. Tape it where the tattoo will sit and look from across a table, not from an inch away.

Printing at actual size and checking the scale

A printed size chart is only as accurate as the print dialog, and the usual failure is silent: a fit-to-page setting shrinks the sheet by a few percent, and every square shrinks with it. At 97% scale the 6-inch ruler reads 147.8 mm, a difference nobody sees until they measure.

The file itself cannot drift. It declares 180 by 245 mm, and its viewBox makes one drawing unit one millimeter, so the 2 × 2 square is written as 50.8 units, readable in any text editor. An inch is exactly 25.4 mm under the 1959 definition NIST documents. The sheet fits US Letter and A4 with room for margins of up to 15 mm, so neither paper forces a shrink.

152.33 mmThe 6-inch ruler in a PDF that Chrome 152 printed from the downloaded file at default settings on US Letter, September 15, 2026. Target 152.4 mm; the 0.07 mm gap is 0.05%, thinner than the 0.2 mm tick line.

A PDF from Chrome is not a physical printer, and a printer driver can scale on its own. That is why the sheet carries a ruler rather than a promise: 152.4 mm on your printout means every square on it is right.

Checking size on a phone or monitor is the shortcut this page does not offer. The CSS Values and Units specification anchors screen units to a reference pixel and says physical units may then not match real measurements, which is why the preview is labeled as scaled.

Tattoo sizes from 1x1 to 6x6 inches

Size moves chair time faster than it moves how big a tattoo looks, because ink covers area: a 2 × 2 design is 4 square inches, a 4 × 4 is 16. The table runs each square through the time model of the tattoo cost calculator at its default inner forearm placement and black and gray shading, for one style per level of detail.

Square	Side in cm	Blackwork	Neo-traditional	Fine line
1 × 1 in	2.5 cm	0.25–0.5 h	0.5–0.75 h	0.5–0.75 h
2 × 2 in	5.1 cm	0.5–0.75 h	0.5–1 h	0.75–1.25 h
3 × 3 in	7.6 cm	0.75–1.25 h	1–1.75 h	1.25–2.25 h
4 × 4 in	10.2 cm	1–1.75 h	1.5–2.5 h	2–3.5 h
5 × 5 in	12.7 cm	1.5–2.5 h	2.25–3.75 h	3–5.25 h, 2 sittings
6 × 6 in	15.2 cm	2–3.5 h	3–5 h	4.25–7.25 h, 2 sittings

These are time estimates with the calculator’s own limits: ±25% for artist speed, 0.4 hours of setup, nothing for drawing time or cover-ups. Past 4 hours the model splits work into sittings, and fine line at 5 × 5 inches is the first square to need two.

The two sizes searched most by name, 2x2 and 3x3 (Ahrefs, US, September 2026), sit either side of a threshold. At the calculator’s placeholder $150 an hour and $100 minimum, a neo-traditional 2 × 2 at 0.5–1 hours has its low end set by the minimum and its high end by time, while a 3 × 3 at 1–1.75 hours is set by time at both ends.

Picking a size from the design, not the chart

The right size is set by the smallest element in the design, not by the square that looks best on paper. Fine lines and small lettering have a floor set by needle diameter, which the placement guide works through site by site; how thin each lettering face gets is compared on tattoo lettering styles.

A workable order: measure the finest detail at the size you want, go up a square if it falls under that floor, then tape that printed square where the tattoo will go. A size an artist has already quoted goes into the design fields.

Paper has limits too. A flat square cannot show how a design wraps a wrist, a calf or the ribs, and a tape measure around the limb says more there. The stencil at the consultation is the final word on size, and the consultation checklist covers what to bring.

Questions people ask

Is a 2 inch tattoo considered small?

Whether 2 inches counts as small depends on who is asking, so the useful measure is what the size does. A 2 × 2 inch square is 50.8 mm a side and, at the tattoo cost calculator's default settings, estimates at 0.5–1 hours: short enough that the low end of its $100–$150 estimate is the $100 shop minimum rather than chair time.

How big is a $200 tattoo?

A $200 tattoo has no fixed size, because price is chair time times one artist's rate. At a placeholder $150 an hour, a round number rather than a market average, $200 buys 1.33 hours before tip: at the cost calculator's default style, a design about 2.5 inches across, or 3.5 inches with a fast artist.

How big is a forearm tattoo?

A forearm tattoo is as big as the flat part of that forearm, and forearms differ, so measure your own: lay the printed chart along the inner arm and note the largest square that sits flat. The random tattoo generator on this site works with 8–15 cm there, about 3.1 to 5.9 inches.

What does 3x3 mean for a tattoo?

A 3x3 tattoo is a design that fits a box 3 inches by 3 inches, 7.6 cm a side. The box is not the inked area: the tattoo cost calculator assumes 50% of it carries ink, and at its default settings estimates 1–1.75 hours for a 3-inch piece.

When is a printed size chart the wrong tool?

A printed chart is the wrong tool when a design wraps around the body, like a band on a wrist or calf, because flat paper cannot show the curve; use a tape measure there. It is also wrong on a screen, where web inches are not guaranteed to be physical inches.