About the Roman Numeral Tattoo Generator
Two styles are offered. The year style prints a line such as 1998 = MCMXCVIII, covering every year from 1900 to 2030. The date style lays out a day, month and year in the classic three part form, XIV . VI . MCMXCVIII, followed by the plain English reading in brackets so you can check it at a glance. Nine hundred and twelve dates spread across 1950 to 2025 are stored, one for every month of every year.
The numerals were converted with the standard subtractive rules, where four is IV rather than IIII and nine hundred is CM rather than DCCCC. That is the convention a tattoo artist will expect, and it is the one that avoids the very long strings the additive style produces. Every numeral here was generated by the same conversion, so there are no hand typed mistakes in the list.
The point of browsing random dates is to see how a layout behaves before you commit to your own date. Some numbers come out short and balanced, others sprawl to twelve characters and look very different down a forearm than they do on a screen. Draw a dozen, look at the shapes, and then work out how your own date will sit.
This page suggests layouts, not your personal date, so always ask your artist to confirm the final numeral against a written note of the day, month and year. For a plain year to work from, use the Random Year Generator, and the Random Quote Generator helps if you are weighing up words instead of numbers.
How to use
- Choose Year with its numeral or Full date, day month year.
- Set how many ideas to draw so you can compare several layouts side by side.
- Generate, then look at the length and balance of each numeral rather than the date itself.
- Write your own date down in plain numbers and have your artist convert and double check it.
Common questions
- How do I get my own date instead of a random one?
- Use the draws to compare layouts, then write your date as day, month and year and convert each part with the same subtractive rules shown here.
- Why is 1998 written MCMXCVIII?
- M is 1000, CM is 900, XC is 90, V is 5 and III is 3. Added together that gives 1998 in the standard subtractive form.
- What do the dots between the numbers mean?
- They are separators between day, month and year. Full stops, middle dots and thin spaces are all common, so pick the one that suits the layout.
- Which years are covered?
- The year style runs from 1900 to 2030, and the date style covers every month from 1950 to 2025.