Skull tattoo stencils
14 skull designs, from a fine-line skull just over an inch tall to stacked skulls for a sleeve. Choose stencil, outline or flash, set the size and print; the flash sheets are in color.
4.50 in4.50 inRose skull
4.5″Rose skull
5″Death's-head moth
3.5″Traditional skull
5″Skull and dagger
1.25″Tiny skull, fine line
4.5″Sugar skull
7.5″Japanese skull and snake
5″Winged skull
4.5″Geometric skull
3″Bold blackwork skull
2″Skull and crossbones
4.5″Skull with crown
5″Longhorn skull with feathers
7″Stacked skulls
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§1What a skull tattoo means
In art a skull is a memento mori, Latin for “remember you must die”: a reminder not to waste the time you have. Four of the skulls here come with a more specific story.
- SK-06 Winged skull echoes the winged skulls carved on early New England gravestones, here with bat wings for a gothic look.
- SK-09 Skull and crossbones flew on pirate flags, and from the 1850s it marked bottles of poison in the US.
- SK-04 Sugar skull comes from Mexico’s Day of the Dead, when decorated sugar skulls, often with a name across the forehead, are placed on altars for the dead.
- SK-11 Longhorn skull with feathers is a Southwestern image. Georgia O’Keeffe painted bleached cow skulls after her first long stay in New Mexico, among them Cow’s Skull: Red, White, and Blue (1931).
§2Skull flash and outlines
Every skull here has a flash version: the same drawing filled with a small set of colors. SK-01 Traditional skull and SK-02 Skull and dagger are drawn in the bold American traditional manner, with few shapes and plenty of room for solid color. SK-10 Skull with crown and R-06 Rose skull carry more detail and look better a size up.
Outlines are for drawing. Print SK-09 or SK-03 Tiny skull as an outline to practice lining, or take SK-07 Geometric skull and shade the facets your own way. For a sleeve, SK-05 Japanese skull and snake and SK-12 Stacked skulls are tall compositions, set at 7 to 7.5 in by default.
§3Skull sizes by placement
| Placement | Usual size | Good designs |
|---|---|---|
| Wrist | 1–3 in | SK-03 Tiny skull, SK-09 Skull and crossbones |
| Ankle | 1–3 in | SK-03, SK-09 |
| Neck | 2–4 in | SK-03, SK-09 |
| Forearm | 3–6 in | SK-01, SK-02, SK-07, SK-08, SK-10 |
| Calf | 2–6 in | SK-01, SK-02, SK-08 Bold blackwork skull |
| Chest | 3–10 in | SK-04, SK-06, SK-10, SK-11, BF-02 |
| Back | 4–10 in | SK-05, SK-06, SK-07 |
| Thigh | 4–10 in | SK-05, SK-04, SK-11, R-06 |
Size ranges are from the placement charts at Saved Tattoo and Inkjin; treat them as a guide. Teeth and cracks are the smallest details on a skull, so a detailed design like SK-10 or SK-04 belongs in the upper half of the range.
§4Questions
Q1What does a skull tattoo mean?
Most often it is a memento mori, a reminder that life is short. The design changes the reading: a sugar skull honors the dead on Day of the Dead, and a skull and crossbones points back to pirate flags.
Q2Which skull is easiest to tattoo?
SK-09 Skull and crossbones and SK-03 Tiny skull are both rated simple. SK-01 Traditional skull and SK-08 Bold blackwork skull are a step up, with bold lines a beginner can still manage.
Q3Does the skull flash come with the colors already chosen?
Yes. Each flash sheet is the same drawing filled with a small fixed palette, bone cream for the skull plus a few accent colors, so SK-04 Sugar skull prints with its flowers colored in. Download it as a PDF or PNG at the size you set, and tattoo from the stencil.
Q4Which skull works for a sleeve?
SK-05 Japanese skull and snake and SK-12 Stacked skulls are drawn tall for a sleeve, 7.5 and 7 in by default. Go bigger than your paper and the PDF tiles the drawing over several pages, with a note on each sheet for taping them together.