How long does a full sleeve tattoo actually take?
A sleeve usually takes about 6 months. That’s the honest answer when people ask me how long it’ll take.
Most people imagine it happens over a handful of intense sittings, or they go the opposite way and think its years!. The pacing is actually different.
1 day left on this red panda sleeve!
I work in blocks of 1 to 3 days at a time. The block length isn’t a formula — when we talk through the piece, I’ll look at each section and tell you how many days in a row that part needs to look finished. The point of working in blocks is that every time you leave, the section we’ve worked on reads as complete. Never half-done, never patchy mid-project — always looking like a finished section even when the rest of the piece is still ahead.
Between each block your skin needs 3 to 4 weeks to heal before we can go back in. That part is standard — skin needs proper recovery time before the next session.
A typical sleeve runs to 7 or 9 sessions in total. Working in 1-3-day blocks every month or so puts a sleeve at about 6 months. The pacing depends on you — your healing speed, your schedule, how long you can sit and your budget!
Consultation first. You bring the concept, I bring the way I’d want to interpret it. We agree on scale, palette, placement, and rough composition before any needle goes anywhere.
I design the whole sleeve before we start. Not one piece at a time — the whole thing. That way every element speaks to the ones around it.
Sessions run in 1–3 day chunks — long enough to finish a section cleanly. 3–4 weeks of healing between blocks.
After every session the standard aftercare applies — keep it clean, keep it out of sun and water while it’s fresh.
My favourite sleeves have all been these ones — properly mapped at the design stage, real healing time between sessions, no rush to finish. Those are the pieces that age well. The pieces that I can take the time with, to make sure everything is right!
If you’ve been thinking about starting one, my books are open through summer and autumn. We’d start with a consultation.
