Spider and web tattoo stencils

§1Spiders, webs and the elbow web

The spider web is a common tattoo image, and it turns up for two quite different reasons. The best-known reading comes from US prison tattooing, where a web on the elbow or the back of the hand is taken to mean time served. That reading is repeated far more often than it is documented, so treat the details that get attached to it, such as a year for every ring, as folklore. Often a web is simply there to fill the space between other tattoos, because radial threads stretch to fit almost any corner. Which of the two a web means depends on the person wearing it, so don’t read a stranger’s elbow too quickly.

The black widow has its own story. On the real spider the red hourglass sits under the female’s abdomen and works as a warning color: she hangs upside down in her web, which turns the mark toward anything passing by. SP-05 Black widow on web keeps that hourglass. SP-09 Web with cherry blossoms takes the web somewhere softer, with petals caught in the threads in a Japanese style.

§2Spider sizes by placement

The ranges follow the charts at Saved Tattoo and Inkjin. Neither chart covers the elbow. Bend the arm, measure across the point of the elbow and set the size to that number. SP-07 Bold web with spider is the round web for it; SP-02 is drawn to a corner shape, the kind that fills a gap between other pieces.

§3Picking a spider design

Half of this set is rated for beginners. SP-10 Spider outline is a spider and nothing else: body, head, eight legs, no web. SP-01 Traditional spider and SP-07 are drawn in thick, fully closed line, which is the kind that survives a slightly rushed transfer. Whatever the style, legs are the hard part of a spider. Eight thin lines have to stay evenly spaced, and on SP-03 Tiny spider at 1 in they sit very close, so print it at real size and look before you commit.

For a sleeve, SP-12 Spider dropping from web is the long vertical piece, 7 in by default; SP-04 Hanging spider is its small fine-line cousin for a wrist or ankle. SP-11 Tarantula and SP-08 Jeweled spider are the detailed drawings, so keep them at 4 in or more. Spider flash, the colored version to show your artist, is one switch away: set the format to Flash on any design.

§4Questions