Turn a date into Roman numerals and see every layout worth considering, with the trade-offs of each. Free, and nothing is stored.
Day · Month · Year
XXIX · VIII · MMXXVI
The most common layout outside the US. Reads as day first.
Month · Day · Year
VIII · XXIX · MMXXVI
The US convention. Identical characters to the layout above when both numbers are under 13 — decide which you mean before you commit.
Dashes
XXIX - VIII - MMXXVI
Reads cleanly at small sizes and on curved placements like a wrist or collarbone.
Slashes
XXIX / VIII / MMXXVI
Unmistakably a date, which removes the day-versus-month ambiguity for most readers.
Stacked
XXIX VIII MMXXVI
Three lines. Suits a spine, a forearm running lengthways, or a narrow vertical space.
Year only
MMXXVI
Shortest and least ambiguous. Often the better choice when the year is what matters.
That date runs to 20 characters on its longest line. It may not stay legible on a small placement like a finger or a wrist — ask your artist about the minimum size, or consider the year-only layout.
XI · IV · MMXX is 11 April to most of the world and 4 November in the United States. Both are correct, and nothing in the numerals tells a reader which you meant. If the date could be misread either way, use slashes, spell the month, or accept that some people will read it the other way round.
Years in the 1870s and 1880s produce strings like MDCCCLXXXVIII. On a wrist or a finger those characters run together as they age and the ink spreads. Ask your artist about the smallest size that will still read in ten years, and consider the year-only layout if the full date will not fit.
A date tattoo with a wrong numeral is a permanent typo, and it is the single most common regret with this style. Copy the result here, have someone else read it back to you against the actual date, and check it again on the stencil before the needle starts.
A serif face separates I from a stray line and makes repeated characters like XXX easier to count. Sans-serif looks cleaner on screen and gets harder to read on skin over time. Most artists will steer you toward a serif for numerals, and it is worth listening.
The seven symbols every Roman numeral is built from.
| Symbol | Value |
|---|---|
| I | 1 |
| V | 5 |
| X | 10 |
| L | 50 |
| C | 100 |
| D | 500 |
| M | 1000 |
Convert each part separately — day, month and year — then join them with a separator. Enter the date above and every sensible layout is generated for you. The parts are never merged into one number; a date is three numerals, not one.
The Roman system had no symbol for zero, so a date part is always written as its own value. There is no leading zero on a single-digit day or month: the 5th is V, never 0V.
Dots and dashes are the most common and read well at small sizes. Slashes make it unmistakably a date, which removes day-versus-month ambiguity. Stacking the three parts on separate lines suits a spine or a lengthways forearm piece.
A short date works almost anywhere. A long one needs length rather than width, so a forearm running lengthways, a collarbone or a spine handles it better than a wrist. Long strings on fingers rarely age well.
IV is standard and is what this tool produces. IIII appears on clock faces by convention and reads as a mistake to almost everyone else, so it is not a good choice for something permanent.
See how a date looks as a finished piece — browse lettering tattoos or generate your own.