How long does it take to design a tattoo

Q: How long does it take to create a tattoo?

Getting a new tattoo can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months. In some cases they can take over a year. Each session is typically 4-6 hours. How long your tattoo takes depends on size, complexity, care, and artist skill.

Q: How long does it take for a tattoo artist to draw a sleeve?

Sleeve tattoos vary widely depending on how intricate they are, or what colors they include. A full sleeve will likely take at least 12 hours (or around two days worth of work) but can require as many as 80 hours.

Q: How big is a 2 hour tattoo?

2 Hour Tattoo Size At first glance, this roughly 6-7 inch tattoo (by our estimates) is quite detailed and looks like it would take hours to complete.

Q: Do tattoo artists draw the design first?

Whether someone chooses the artist or the design first is totally up to them. While some might already know what they want tattooed and can be flexible with the artist doing it, others might be dead set on a specific artist and more open to the artists input when it comes to the design and placement.

I've been planning on getting a tattoo for a long time and I drew up a rough design for my artist to work with. I gave it to her 2 and a half weeks ago and I haven't gotten much insight from her about it other than changes to compensate for color fading/running. But what concerns me the most is that she hasn't sent me one sketch. It's fairly large but theres not really that much detail. So I don't understand what's taking so long.

Table of Contents Show

What tattoos take the shortest time to draw up?
what tattoos take the longest time to draw up?
Can a good artist draw up my tattoo faster?
Why is my tattoo design taking so long to draw up?
Related Questions
How long does it take to create a tattoo?
How long does it take for a tattoo artist to draw a sleeve?
How big is a 2 hour tattoo?
Do tattoo artists draw the design first?

Is this a normal wait time for a tatt? This will be my first tattoo.

Update: I talked to the artist and she doesn't want to make an appointment until she's finished her sketch. And she says she's working on it more. I don't really know what to make of this.

I was looking through some tattoo designs and started to ask myself some questions about these really nice tattoo sketches. Some of them were custom designs and others were just flash. If I wanted a tattoo artist to draw up a tattoo for me I’d be asking this question. How long does it take a tattoo artist to draw up a tattoo?

The length of time is takes a tattoo artist to draw up a tattoo is anywhere between 30 minutes for a small, simple design and up to 4 weeks for a large, complex, custom color design.

Tattoo factor	Fast Draw Time	Long Draw Time
Size	Small <6 SQ	Large <35 SQ
Style	Illustrative/Simple	Realism
Color	Greyscale	Color
Design	Flash	Custom Design

This table shows what factors in a tattoo design cause it to take a long time to draw vs a short time to draw.

This is a good range of time lengths that you should be looking it for the drawing up process of any tattoo design. Depending on the kind of tattoo that you have, the length of time it takes to draw up is going to fall into this range. Lets look at more of the specifics.

What tattoos take the shortest time to draw up?

The tattoos that take the shortest time to draw up are small, simply designed tattoos without color.

Small Tattoos
Illustrative Style/Simply Styled Tattoos
Greyscale
Flash

If you go into the tattoo shop and ask your artist to make a little sketch of something fairly simple it shouldn’t take very long. This would be something like a small lettering tattoo, a small simple quote, symbol, figure, or anything that is under about 6 square inches without color will take a short amount of time.

If you want tattoo flash that is hanging up on the walls it wont take long to draw up since the design is already there. It can be modified slightly for your tastes but that shouldn’t affect the length of time very much.

Going in for a custom tattoo for something small and simple would take less than an hour for the artist to do a sketch for you to approve.

Things like increasing the complexity of the design with multiple figures and backgrounds in the tattoo as well as increasing the size and adding color are going to make your simple tattoo design take longer for the artist to draw.

what tattoos take the longest time to draw up?

Tattoos that take the longest time to draw up are going to be large realism tattoos with lots of color.

Large Tattoos
Realism Style Tattoos
Color Tattoos
Custom Tattoos

The realism tattoo style takes the longest to draw up. This is because there are lots of fine details in tattoos that closely capture reality. In order to make a tattoo photorealistic it needs to have details.

The size of the tattoo is also certainly going to affect the length of time it takes to design. When tattoos start to get larger and cover more of the body the artist has to take into account the curvature of your body and how the design is going to look placed on your specific curvature. A small design on your arm will not have those complications as the surface for the tattoo is relatively flat.

Another reason why larger tattoos take longer is because the artist has to make a larger design. A larger design will take longer because there is just more work to be done in order to make the design complete.

Color is the final component of a tattoo that is going to take a long time to design. Color adds another layer of complexity to the artwork. Each color has to be carefully considered not only for how it will impact the design itself but how it will look on the skin. Color is challenging on a tattoo design because it might look good on the sketch and the stencil but the quality of the colors will change greatly when they are in the skin and begin to age.

This is why I recommend searching around to find a good tattoo artist who understands these things and can either design you a good tattoo from scratch or take a design that you already have and make it perfect.

Can a good artist draw up my tattoo faster?

A good artist can draw up your tattoo faster if you schedule an appointment with them and ask them to do a sketch on the spot.

Otherwise a good tattoo artist might take even longer than a lesser artist because they are going to spend more time coming up with multiple sketches or just more time in general researching and planning the design out.

The thing that ultimately matters is not the length of time that it takes to draw the tattoo but your satisfaction with the tattoo.

Here are some things that can help your artist draw up your tattoo faster.

If you are using a reference picture, make sure the picture is high quality.
Give them some wiggle room in the design. Allow them to be creative. This is better and faster than being too specific.
Check in on them periodically and ask how the design is coming. Sometimes they artists get busy and other work comes up. This is especially true for a more popular artist. Just send them an email or text message.

Why is my tattoo design taking so long to draw up?

Chances are that your design happened to be a complex one that required a lot of time from the artist.

If your deposit was especially large ($200-$500) then that means that they are going to take their time on your design. For an artist to charge that much on their deposit it means that they are someone who is truly skilled and who is going to be worth the wait.

If your design is taking more than 2 weeks and your deposit was only $20 then it probably means your artist forgot about your design. This is especially so if you don’t have an appointment set up already. If this is the case then give your artist a friendly reminder by calling and checking in on the design. Maybe even schedule an appointment with them on the phone so that they know you’re serious.

Can I just get a design from a tattoo artist with no commitment to get it tattooed?

You can get a design from an artist with no commitment to getting it tattooed.

Most tattooists will do this if you put down a deposit that covers the time it would take them to design the tattoo. They do this because their artwork is their livelihood and they want to be compensated for their trade.

What is Flash?

Tattoo flash are predesigned tattoos that are usually hung up on the walls of the tattoo parlor. They are intended for walk in customers looking for something that they can get fast and cheaply.

Flash can be quickly modified to suit the needs of the customer unlike a fully custom tattoo.

What are some simple styles of tattoos that wont take very long to design?

Traditional tattoos and tattoos with only a few design elements are going to be easy to design and should not take long for an artist to draw up.

Styles like Geometric and tribal are going to be a fast design process but they will potentially have a long tattooing process.

How long does it take to create a tattoo?

Getting a new tattoo can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months. In some cases they can take over a year. Each session is typically 4-6 hours. How long your tattoo takes depends on size, complexity, care, and artist skill.

How long does it take for a tattoo artist to draw a sleeve?

Sleeve tattoos vary widely depending on how intricate they are, or what colors they include. A full sleeve will likely take at least 12 hours (or around two days' worth of work) but can require as many as 80 hours.

How big is a 2 hour tattoo?

2 Hour Tattoo Size At first glance, this roughly 6-7 inch tattoo (by our estimates) is quite detailed and looks like it would take hours to complete.

Do tattoo artists draw the design first?

Whether someone chooses the artist or the design first is totally up to them. While some might already know what they want tattooed and can be flexible with the artist doing it, others might be dead set on a specific artist and more open to the artists' input when it comes to the design and placement.