How to Make a Large Tattoo Stencil for Back Pieces

By Simon Turkovič · Co-founder, Stencil AI · 7 min read

Stencil paper and stencil printers stop at A4 or US Letter. That's plenty for a forearm piece, but not for a back piece, a thigh panel or a full chest. This guide covers how to make a large tattoo stencil: splitting the design across several sheets at true size, taping them back together so every line meets, and getting a big stencil onto the skin.

A large tattoo stencil, in 6 steps

Measure the placement and set the design to its final size.
Split it into a grid of sheets, repeating a strip of the design at every seam.
Print every sheet at 100% scale — never "fit to page".
Trim the leading margin of each sheet and lay it over its neighbour until the lines meet.
Tape the seams on the back, never across lines on the side that touches the skin.
Apply it with the client relaxed, all at once or section by section.

Why big stencils go wrong

Three things work against a big stencil:

The paper is small. Most thermal stencil printers take A4 or Letter. After the margin a printer needs, that leaves about 19 × 26–28 cm per sheet. A3 thermal printers exist, but they cost more and still stop at about 28 × 40 cm.
Scaling errors grow with size. A print that's 2% off is 2 mm on a 10 cm piece, but more than a centimetre on a 60 cm back piece. Every sheet has to print at exactly 100%.
Printers can't print to the edge. Every sheet has a blank strip along its edges, so sheets can't simply be butted together. Each seam needs an overlap to line up.

Option 1: Draw it on freehand

Many artists draw the largest pieces straight onto the skin with surgical skin markers, especially flowing work such as Japanese back pieces, and use stencils only for the parts that need precision, like faces or lettering. It's the most flexible method, but it depends entirely on the drawing hand, and it's hard to repeat exactly at the next session.

Option 2: Split the stencil across several sheets

For a printed stencil, the design is divided into tiles that each fit one sheet. Two things make the seams work:

An overlap. Repeat a strip of the design, about 1 cm, on both sides of every seam. You line the sheets up by matching lines, not by measuring.
Labels. Number every sheet by row and column, so a twelve-sheet back piece goes back together in the right order.

You can tile a design by hand in Photoshop or Procreate, duplicating the canvas and cropping each tile, but it's slow and easy to get wrong. Adobe Acrobat's Poster print option can split a PDF across pages with overlap and cut marks; keep its tile scale at 100%.

Big pieces in Stencil AI

Stencil AI does the split for you. On the print screen, set the size on paper in centimetres or inches. If the design is bigger than one sheet, tap the grid button at the top and choose how many sheets across and down, up to 5 × 5. More sheets add paper around the design without resizing it, so it stays at the size you set. The Fit button does the opposite and scales the design to fill the grid, so skip it if you've already measured.

Every sheet prints with the aids that make assembly easy:

a 1 cm blank margin all round, because printers can't print to the edge
a 1 cm strip of the design repeated on both sides of every seam
a dashed cut line on the left or top margin of each sheet that goes over a neighbour
small tick marks in the margins showing exactly where the next sheet's cut edge goes
a label such as 3/12 · R1C3 — sheet 3 of 12, row 1, column 3

It works with A4, Letter, A3 and 11×17 paper, in the iPhone, iPad and Android app and in the browser on a PC or Mac. Print straight from the app or the browser, or save a PDF with one page per sheet and print it from any computer.

How big can a tiled stencil be?

Each extra sheet adds one sheet's printable area minus the 1 cm overlap. These are the largest designs each grid holds, with the sheets upright:

A4, 1 sheet: 19 × 27.7 cm
A4, 2 × 2 sheets: 37 × 54.4 cm
A4, 3 × 3 sheets: 55 × 81.1 cm
A4, 5 × 5 sheets: 91 × 134.5 cm
US Letter, 1 sheet: 7.7 × 10.2 in
US Letter, 2 × 2 sheets: 15 × 20 in
US Letter, 3 × 3 sheets: 22.4 × 29.9 in
US Letter, 5 × 5 sheets: 37 × 49.5 in

The grid doesn't have to be square: a tall, narrow piece might be 2 sheets across and 3 down.

How to put the sheets together

Lay them out printed side up

Arrange the sheets in the grid you printed, with sheet 1 at the top left. The labels in the bottom margins tell you where each one goes.

Cut the dashed lines

Every sheet except the first has a dashed line along its left margin, its top margin, or both. Cut along it with scissors or a craft knife, and leave the other margins on.

Build each row

Lay the second sheet on top of the first, with its cut edge on the tick marks in the first sheet's margin. Check that the lines run straight across the seam, then tape it. Carry on along the row.

Join the rows

Lay the second row over the first the same way, with its cut top edge on the tick marks near the bottom of the first row. Finishing the rows first means you never line up two seams at once.

TIP

Always lay later sheets on top of earlier ones: the sheet on the right goes over the one on its left, and the lower row over the upper one. Put one underneath and its blank margin covers part of the design. Tape on the back, never across the lines on the side that touches the skin.

Applying a big stencil

A big stencil goes on like any other — shaved, clean, degreased skin and a thin layer of transfer solution (see how tattoo artists make stencils) — with a few differences:

Position the body first. Have the client stand or sit relaxed, in the posture the tattoo will be seen in. On a back piece, check the stencil against the spine and shoulder blades in a mirror before you start.
Use a second pair of hands. A large sheet is floppy. One person holds the top edge in place while the other smooths it down from the centre outwards.
Or apply it in sections. If the whole sheet is too unwieldy, cut it between design elements rather than through them, and apply the sections one after another, lining each one up with the lines already on the skin.
Sleeves usually go on in sections. A flat sheet can't wrap all the way around an arm, so a sleeve is stencilled part by part — the outer arm, the inner arm, the shoulder — each sized, and if needed curved, to its own part of the arm.
Stencil one session at a time. A back piece takes several sessions, and the stencil only needs to cover the part you're tattooing that day. Keep the PDF and reprint the sheets you need for the next sitting.

TIP

Print one sheet on plain paper first and check it with a ruler. If that sheet is off, every sheet is off by the same amount, and the error adds up across the grid.

Getting the size right in the first place is its own step: see how to size a tattoo stencil. And if the piece wraps around a limb, the guide to curving a stencil covers bending the design to the body.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make a stencil for a back piece?

Set the design to its final size, split it across several sheets with a strip of overlap at every seam, print each sheet at 100% scale, then trim and tape the sheets together so the lines meet. Apply it with the client standing relaxed. Many artists apply big stencils in sections, or draw the largest pieces freehand with a skin marker.

Can you print a tattoo stencil on multiple pages?

Yes. Split the design into tiles that each fit the page, with about 1 cm of overlap, and print every tile at 100%. Stencil AI does this for you: it splits a stencil across up to 5 × 5 sheets at true size, with cut lines, tick marks and labels.

How big can a thermal stencil printer print?

Most thermal stencil printers take A4 or US Letter paper, which leaves roughly 19 × 26–28 cm (about 7.5 × 10–11 in) once a margin is allowed for. A3 thermal printers exist; anything bigger has to be split across sheets.

How do you line up a stencil printed on several sheets?

Use an overlap, not a ruler: each seam repeats a strip of the design on both sheets, so you place the top sheet where the lines continue. Stencil AI also prints tick marks where each cut edge belongs, so every sheet goes straight into place.

Print big pieces at true size

Split any stencil across up to 25 sheets, with cut lines, tick marks and labels, and tape it back together at the exact size you set.

Try Stencil AI

How to Make a Large Tattoo Stencil for Back Pieces

By Simon Turkovič · Co-founder, Stencil AI · 7 min read

A large tattoo stencil, in 6 steps

Measure the placement and set the design to its final size.
Split it into a grid of sheets, repeating a strip of the design at every seam.
Print every sheet at 100% scale — never "fit to page".
Trim the leading margin of each sheet and lay it over its neighbour until the lines meet.
Tape the seams on the back, never across lines on the side that touches the skin.
Apply it with the client relaxed, all at once or section by section.

Why big stencils go wrong

Three things work against a big stencil:

The paper is small. Most thermal stencil printers take A4 or Letter. After the margin a printer needs, that leaves about 19 × 26–28 cm per sheet. A3 thermal printers exist, but they cost more and still stop at about 28 × 40 cm.
Scaling errors grow with size. A print that's 2% off is 2 mm on a 10 cm piece, but more than a centimetre on a 60 cm back piece. Every sheet has to print at exactly 100%.
Printers can't print to the edge. Every sheet has a blank strip along its edges, so sheets can't simply be butted together. Each seam needs an overlap to line up.

Option 1: Draw it on freehand

Option 2: Split the stencil across several sheets

For a printed stencil, the design is divided into tiles that each fit one sheet. Two things make the seams work:

An overlap. Repeat a strip of the design, about 1 cm, on both sides of every seam. You line the sheets up by matching lines, not by measuring.
Labels. Number every sheet by row and column, so a twelve-sheet back piece goes back together in the right order.

Big pieces in Stencil AI

Every sheet prints with the aids that make assembly easy:

a 1 cm blank margin all round, because printers can't print to the edge
a 1 cm strip of the design repeated on both sides of every seam
a dashed cut line on the left or top margin of each sheet that goes over a neighbour
small tick marks in the margins showing exactly where the next sheet's cut edge goes
a label such as 3/12 · R1C3 — sheet 3 of 12, row 1, column 3

How big can a tiled stencil be?

Each extra sheet adds one sheet's printable area minus the 1 cm overlap. These are the largest designs each grid holds, with the sheets upright:

A4, 1 sheet: 19 × 27.7 cm
A4, 2 × 2 sheets: 37 × 54.4 cm
A4, 3 × 3 sheets: 55 × 81.1 cm
A4, 5 × 5 sheets: 91 × 134.5 cm
US Letter, 1 sheet: 7.7 × 10.2 in
US Letter, 2 × 2 sheets: 15 × 20 in
US Letter, 3 × 3 sheets: 22.4 × 29.9 in
US Letter, 5 × 5 sheets: 37 × 49.5 in

The grid doesn't have to be square: a tall, narrow piece might be 2 sheets across and 3 down.

How to put the sheets together

Lay them out printed side up

Arrange the sheets in the grid you printed, with sheet 1 at the top left. The labels in the bottom margins tell you where each one goes.

Cut the dashed lines

Every sheet except the first has a dashed line along its left margin, its top margin, or both. Cut along it with scissors or a craft knife, and leave the other margins on.

Build each row

Lay the second sheet on top of the first, with its cut edge on the tick marks in the first sheet's margin. Check that the lines run straight across the seam, then tape it. Carry on along the row.

Join the rows

Lay the second row over the first the same way, with its cut top edge on the tick marks near the bottom of the first row. Finishing the rows first means you never line up two seams at once.

TIP

Applying a big stencil

A big stencil goes on like any other — shaved, clean, degreased skin and a thin layer of transfer solution (see how tattoo artists make stencils) — with a few differences:

Position the body first. Have the client stand or sit relaxed, in the posture the tattoo will be seen in. On a back piece, check the stencil against the spine and shoulder blades in a mirror before you start.
Use a second pair of hands. A large sheet is floppy. One person holds the top edge in place while the other smooths it down from the centre outwards.
Or apply it in sections. If the whole sheet is too unwieldy, cut it between design elements rather than through them, and apply the sections one after another, lining each one up with the lines already on the skin.
Sleeves usually go on in sections. A flat sheet can't wrap all the way around an arm, so a sleeve is stencilled part by part — the outer arm, the inner arm, the shoulder — each sized, and if needed curved, to its own part of the arm.
Stencil one session at a time. A back piece takes several sessions, and the stencil only needs to cover the part you're tattooing that day. Keep the PDF and reprint the sheets you need for the next sitting.

TIP

Print one sheet on plain paper first and check it with a ruler. If that sheet is off, every sheet is off by the same amount, and the error adds up across the grid.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make a stencil for a back piece?

Can you print a tattoo stencil on multiple pages?

How big can a thermal stencil printer print?

How do you line up a stencil printed on several sheets?

Print big pieces at true size

Split any stencil across up to 25 sheets, with cut lines, tick marks and labels, and tape it back together at the exact size you set.

Try Stencil AI