To provide a tire printing method and a tire printing apparatus capable of highly accurately printing on a side surface of a tire by reducing the change in a distance of a printing head with respect to a side surface of the tire being a printing object.

A tire printing method measures a surface shape of a side surface 2a of a tire 2 in a radius direction, in which a bead part 14 of the tire 2 being a printing object is individually supported in a tire width direction, and prints on the side surface 2a by adjusting a distance between bead parts 14;14 of the tire 2 in a rotation center shaft A direction so that the change in the distance from the printing head 21 to the side surface 2a based on the measured surface shape.