How to Make a Tattoo Stencil (2024)

Tattoo stencils act as your guide while you’re tattooing, and as a tattoo artist, you will use stencils for every tattoo you do.

This is why it is so important to know how to make a quality stencil that holds up for the entire tattooing process.

Stencil paper has four layers. The first (white) layer is what you'll be making the stencil on.

The second (brown) layer protects the ink from getting exposed to the other sides. Some people call this onion paper. There's a couple different terms for it, but this sheet is pretty much pointless, and you can just set it aside.

The third (purple) layer is your actual stencil paper. This is what is going to put ink onto the actual paper, and it makes the stencil.

The fourth (yellow) layer is the back layer. This is for protection, just so the stencil paper doesn't get crinkled up when it is in the box.

Mirror: This will “flip” the design.

Darkness/Deepness: The darkness or deepness setting is how dark the design is printed out, and you could go with Deepness I or Deepness II. The second one's super dark, we usually stick to the first one.

Copy: Starts the machine.

Stop: Stops the machine.

To prepare the stencil, you want to open the top part of the machine and slide the yellow sheet through the back slot. Slide it through until it’s far enough out that you can close the top piece of the machine down without catching any part of the yellow paper. The machine will lock down on itself.

Make sure that the white and purple layers are perfectly straight so it doesn’t get jammed in the machine.

Flip the yellow paper away from you, and put the design into the front slot facing away from you. The machine will suck it in just a little bit.

Hit the copy button, and then help guide the stencil paper through the machine so it doesn’t get jammed. Don’t pull up, just help lift it so it doesn’t get bunched up in the machine.

Once the tattoo design has gone all the way through, you can hit the stop button, unlock the top of your machine, and pull the white sheet away from the carbon. This is what you’ll use as your stencil.

First, you’ll want to cut out your stencil from the rest of the paper so it’s easier to work with.

Next, put some Stencil Stuff on the skin and let it dry. If you don’t want to use the actual brand, Stencil Stuff, you could use a couple different options like Anchored by Nico or Green Gold. For thinner paper (like the white sheet of the stencil paper), we recommend using Stencil Stuff or Anchored. If you’ve made a hand stencil and your design is on a thicker paper like printer paper, we recommend using Green Gold.

For this method, you will need stencil paper and a pen. If you are doing hand stencils, one thing you need to think about is the different line weights of your tattoo.

On this example design, you can see there's a couple different line weights to it - thicker and thinner lines - so you're going to want to have a thicker pen and a thinner pen. We like using a 1.4 pen because it’s super thick and it matches closely to using an 11 round liner or 14 round liner.

You can then switch to a smaller size pen for the fine lines. For this design, we’d use a five round liner or a seven round liner for the details.

To make the stencil, put the stencil paper down with the carbon sheet facing up. Then, place the paper with your drawing or printed design on top.

Press over all the lines with your pen and trace the design. When you're doing this, you want to try to stick with one motion to make a crisp and clean stencil. If you’re having a hard time seeing which lines you’ve already gone over, you can print the design off again at a lower opacity. This will make it easier to clearly see where your pen is going.

When you flip the design over, you should see all your lines show up on the other side. If you hold the design up to the light, you’ll be able to clearly see if you got all the lines, or if you missed anything.

1. 1

   Thicker paper holds up better.

1. 2

   It lets you work directly off photographs.

1. 3

   It lets you work directly off photographs.

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   Stencil Machines Save Time.

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   Stencil Machines make perfect stencils.

Learning to make stencils is an important step in your journey, but it can also be pretty eye-opening to how difficult tattooing can be. Without the right knowledge, it’s impossible to level up your skills and become a professional tattoo artist.

However, finding the straight-forward information you need to progress is difficult. And with so much out there online, it’s hard to avoid picking up bad habits from incorrect and outdated resources.

This is one of the biggest struggles new tattooers face, and too many talented artists have given up their goal of getting into tattooing because of the years it would take to unlearn their bad habits.

That’s why aspiring artists are learning to tattoo with the Artist Accelerator Program’s structured course. As a student, you learn every step of the tattooing process from professional artists with the experience and advice you need to build your skills and create incredible tattoos.

With the Artist Accelerator, you can stop wasting time searching through incorrect information. You just get the clear, easy-to-understand lessons you need to start improving fast… along with support and personalized feedback from professional artists in our online Mastermind group.

Over 2500 students have already gone through the course, with many of them opening up their own studios. If you want to join them and learn the skills you need to start tattooing full time faster…

Click here to learn more about the Artist Accelerator Program.