1 / 7
Monarch Butterfly Outlines: 20 Tattoo-Style Designs with Milkweed, a Moon and Color References
Twenty monarch butterfly designs in black tattoo-style linework, from a plain open-winged monarch to one on milkweed, one under a crescent moon and one above its chrysalis. Every design has a matching orange-and-black color reference, and four small ones come with a two-inch print proof.
$3.99
Buy any 3 or more printables and save 20% at checkout.
- Download right after payment — link works for 30 days, up to 5 downloads
- Files arrive as a ZIP with your license PDF inside
- Secure checkout by Stripe · Refund policy
Only one butterfly appears in this set, the monarch, drawn 20 ways in black tattoo-style linework and paired with an orange-and-black color study of each composition. They range from a plain monarch with open wings to one feeding on milkweed, one under a crescent moon and one hovering over the chrysalis it came from. If you are collecting monarch tattoo ideas, you can print the outline to trace or take to your artist and keep the color reference beside it to show where the orange goes.
What the twenty monarchs are doing
Seven show the butterfly alone, turned to different angles. Design 01 is the full top view, symmetrical, with the spotted thorax and striped abdomen drawn in. Number 04 is the same top view with fewer fine lines in the wings, a simpler drawing for a smaller piece. In 02 the monarch turns three-quarters and drifts to the left, 05 and 18 tilt the wings as if lifting off, and 06 and 14 are side views with the wings closed upward, so the legs and the long antennae show.
Six put the monarch with a plant:
- 03 perches on a short sprig of small flowers
- 07 feeds on a milkweed cluster with buds and two broad leaves
- 09 keeps one pair of wings and turns the other half into a spray of blossoms and leaves
- 10 hovers above an open wreath of tiny flowers
- 15 rests on a single leaf with a curved stem
- 19 sits beside a tall stem carrying two open flowers
The last seven add a symbol or more butterflies. A thin crescent moon floats at the upper right of 08. In 11, three four-point sparkles trail below the wings, and in 16 a ring of dots fans out around a symmetrical monarch. Number 17 sets the butterfly inside a thin diamond with a vertical line and a flowering branch running through it. Design 20 places a monarch above a chrysalis hanging from a leaf. Two monarchs share a flowering branch in 12, and in 13 three of them, small to large, climb a curving vine.
Black line or orange reference
In the outline files only the ink is there. The wing cells and the white spots along the edges are open, so the PNG shows background through them and a print comes out black on white paper. The color references fill those cells with orange, keep the spots as solid white and leave the milkweed, wreaths, moon and stems as line drawing. They’re a planning picture for color, not a separate design, and START-HERE warns that screens and printers will show the orange a little differently.
You’ll find the color version only as PNG and in the second half of each PDF. The vector files are black only, and nothing in the set is mirrored.
Four small ones and the two-inch proof
The design index marks 04, 05, 06 and 18 as small-design options, the ones with the fewest lines. The proof PDF prints those four at exactly 2 inches wide each when you print at Actual Size or 100%. Use it to see on paper how much of the wing pattern survives at that width. The guide calls it a paper check, not a recommended size for skin. The busier pieces, like the milkweed cluster or the wreath, need more room than that.
Page sizes and file details
The collection PDFs give each design its own page, with the name at the top. On US Letter the open-winged monarchs run about 7.2 inches across, and the tall wildflower stem in 19 stands about 8.5 inches high. The outline pages are vector drawings, while each color page holds an image.
Each SVG sits on an 8 x 8 inch canvas, and the PNGs match it at 2400 x 2400 pixels. The DXF files trace both edges of every ink line as closed contours, so each line is a narrow shape rather than a single path. The guide says nothing has been printed on skin, transferred or run through a machine as a test, and these are artwork files, not stickers or transfer sheets.
Questions
- Are mirrored versions included?
- No. The files all face one way. START-HERE asks you to follow the directions of your transfer paper or medium for mirroring, so flip the design in your software only if that method calls for it.
- Can I get the color version as an SVG?
- No. The orange-and-black color references come as PNG files and as pages 21 to 40 of each PDF. The SVG and DXF files hold the black outlines only.
