If you want a tattoo from your child’s drawing, the best place to start is by understanding what can actually be done with that drawing right now: InkLabs does not print a design you upload yourself, so the real personalization option today is to choose an existing design, in the size and placement you decide on. That doesn’t cancel out the idea; it gives it an honest direction: either prepare the drawing as well as possible for the day personalization options expand, or find a design in the current collection that captures the same spirit as your child’s drawing.
- You can prepare the drawing correctly at home with a phone camera or scanner, without needing professional retouching.
- The drawing’s crooked lines and odd proportions aren’t flaws to fix; they’re exactly what makes it recognizable as your child’s.
- The right size depends on how many details the drawing has, and the placement on the body depends on the size in turn.
- An InkLabs temporary tattoo’s color isn’t final immediately after application—it reaches its true shade only after a day.
What a tattoo from your child’s drawing actually means
Most parents who look for this want the drawing exactly as it came from their child’s hand, not a version redrawn by an artist. It’s a natural reaction: the drawing’s value lies precisely in its original form, not in an “improved” version. At the moment, however, InkLabs does not make temporary tattoos printed directly from a custom file uploaded by the customer; the personalization available today means combining a design already in the collection with a size and placement you choose.
From here, there are two equally valid directions. The first is to prepare your child’s drawing as well as possible now, so it’s ready for the day a more complete personalization option becomes available. The second is to look in the current collection for a design that captures the same simple spirit—a clear shape with few lines—and make the same size and placement decisions you would have made for the original drawing. For the full picture of what personalization at InkLabs means right now, the guide to combining design, size, and placement goes into more detail than it makes sense to repeat here.
How to prepare your child’s drawing before it becomes a design
Not every drawing works equally well. A drawing with a few clear shapes—a sun, a simple cat, a flower with just a few petals—is easy to make out at any size. A very busy drawing, with lots of overlapping lines or chaotic shading, risks becoming an indistinct smudge when reduced to tattoo size, so it’s worth choosing carefully from the start.
Once you’ve chosen the drawing, capturing it matters just as much as the drawing itself. If you have access to a scanner, a flat scan gives you the most faithful copy—avoid “auto-enhance” options, which can darken shadows or blow out white areas, changing the drawing’s actual texture in the process (source: How to Scan and Clean Up a Drawing). If you’re taking a photo with your phone instead, lay the paper perfectly flat and photograph it straight from above in diffused natural light, so there are no shadows or angle distortions.
When cleaning it up, limit yourself to what really needs attention: dust on the paper, an accidental ink mark, a crease that shows up in the scan. Don’t straighten the lines or correct the proportions to make it look “professionally” drawn—the general advice for projects like this is exactly the opposite, because the crooked lines are part of what turns the drawing into something recognizable as your child’s, not an illustrator’s (source: Can You Turn a Child's Drawing Into a Temporary Tattoo?). If you still need more detailed technical steps for preparing a file for a custom design, the guide to preparing a file for a custom temporary tattoo covers that in depth.
What to do if the paper is creased or the outline has faded
You can carefully flatten slightly crumpled paper under a heavy book for a few hours before scanning or photographing it; don’t try to iron it, because the marker or pencil could smudge. If some lines have faded or are broken because your child pressed unevenly on the paper, leave them as they are: a broken line says just as much about who drew it as a continuous one, and filling it in artificially changes exactly what you wanted to preserve.
Size and placement decisions for a child’s drawing
The amount of detail in the drawing should determine the size, not the other way around. A drawing with few lines and large shapes stays clear even when small, while a drawing with lots of small elements needs more space so the details don’t run into one another.
Discreet areas—the wrist, fingers, behind the ear—work well with simple, small designs, exactly the kind of drawing a child often makes. A forearm or calf offers more space and suits drawings with somewhat more detail, without crowding them. Before making your final decision, print the drawing at actual size on paper and hold it against your skin in the chosen area: it’s the simplest way to see whether the size and placement really work together, not just on paper. For more combinations of areas and sizes than the small/medium/full-body framework covered here, the guide to temporary tattoo sizes covers more options.
What color the drawing will be once applied
Immediately after application, an InkLabs temporary tattoo looks lighter and slightly bluish compared with its final shade—it’s a normal stage of the process, not a sign that something went wrong. The color gradually deepens over the next few hours and reaches its true tone, a dark blue-black, 24-36 hours after application. If you check the drawing in the first hour and it looks pale, wait until the next day before drawing any conclusions. The article about how the color develops explains in more detail why this happens, if you want the full explanation.
A design from the collection that captures the spirit of the drawing
If you choose the second option—a design that already exists and captures the spirit of your child’s drawing—look for simple shapes, a single-line design, or a minimalist style rather than dense or photorealistic pieces, which are far removed from the way children usually draw.
A fine-line cat outline made with one continuous stroke is a good example of a design that captures that simplicity without looking faded or lacking personality. You can see more similar designs in the Fine line temporary tattoo collection.
A minimalist butterfly, with just a few large shapes and no elaborate shading, is a second example in the same vein—a subject children often draw, reduced here to its essentials. Whichever of the two is closer to the original drawing, the size and placement decisions stay the same: let the amount of detail determine the size, then choose the area based on the size.
What to do next
In short: choose a drawing with clear shapes, capture it well, and clean it up minimally without straightening its lines; decide on the size based on how detailed it is, and on the body area based on the size; and give the color a full day before judging the final result. Once you’ve prepared the drawing or chosen a design, the step-by-step guide to applying a temporary tattoo takes you through the rest of the process.
If you want to see the full range of personalization options at InkLabs, not just the part related to your child’s drawing, the personalization guide remains the most complete resource. Otherwise, browse the fine-line or minimalist designs until you find one that looks like your child’s drawing.
