Turner Prize nominee Ciara Phillips is the fourth artist to be commissioned to make a dazzle ship design.
The work celebrates the untold histories of women during the war.
It was inspired by the team of women who worked under British marine artist Norman Wilkinson, who invented the dazzle technique.
Mr Wilkinson designed the abstract dazzle ship patterns and disorientating shapes to prevent the enemy from determining a vessel's range, speed and direction of travel.
Ms Phillips's work is entitled "Every Woman" and was co-commissioned by centenary art commissions body 14-18 NOW and Edinburgh Art Festival.
A spokeswoman for the festival said it took the artist's medium of screen-printing to a "new scale", covering the entire surface of the ship with a "bold gestural design".
It was painted on the MV Fingal, a former lighthouse ship at Leith docks.
The design, to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Jutland, also celebrates the women who worked as telegraphists and signallers during World War One.
It includes a message in Morse code embedded within the pattern in retro reflective paint reading "Every Woman a Signal Tower".
The message will shine out in the darkness, celebrating the ship's former role as a supplier to remote lighthouses.

Nick Bennett said a "fear and blame" culture needed to be tackled describing the situation as "groundhog day".
He said his office handled about 2,000 complaints every year - double the number investigated 10 years ago.
The Welsh Government said it would consider the findings and expected all public bodies to do the same.
The Welsh Local Government Association said there was a Public Services Ombudsman bill going through the assembly which it felt would lead to greater consistency and improvements in complaints handling.
Mr Bennett's report highlighted delayed and inadequate investigation of complaints, and said the outcomes were "nothing less than absurd".
He has called for effective governance across the Welsh public sector, robust staff training and improved methods of data collection.
"The number of complaints coming to my office about public services has doubled over the last decade," he said.
"I think it will increase by at least 5% over the next year. I have a choice, either we can deal with an ever increasing number of frustrated service users in Wales, or we can try and do more to make sure that things are being corrected at source."
Mr Bennett said the increase in the number of health complaints he had received was likely to be due to an ageing population and patients each having a number of health issues, which increase the risk of something going wrong.
"Nonetheless, I still see a significant number of health complaints that are linked back to complaint handling," he added.
"This is not a medical issue, it's got nothing to do with a changing demographic - it's about the fact these organisations are not demonstrating the learning from things that have gone wrong.
"There is an awful lot of cultural work that can be done by the NHS and other public service bodies in Wales, which has got nothing to do with cuts and nothing to do with the challenge of an ageing population - it's about the culture of an organisation, it's about leadership and it's about better delivery."
Sue Pink and her husband Tim from near Llanon, Ceredigion have been struggling to get suitable education for their two autistic sons.
Their complaint to the ombudsman about Ceredigion council was upheld two years ago.
Mrs Pink said their complaint had been dealt with "very slowly" and there was "an awful lot of burden of proof on themselves".
She said they not only had to "prove that what they said was correct, but what the council said was incorrect".
Mr and Mrs Pink have gone on to make repeated complaints and do not believe lessons have been learned.
"We've experienced the same delays," Mrs Pink said.
She said there needed to be "improved communication" and people taking responsibility.
Vanessa Young, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said NHS chiefs had recently met with the ombudsman to discuss sharing good practice.
"The feedback and experiences - both good and bad - of patients and their families are critical in helping NHS Wales to provide high standards of care," she said.
"However we know that further work is needed when it comes to the complaints system."
A Welsh Government spokesperson added: "Complainants must have full confidence that the issues they raise are dealt with appropriately and sensitively."
A Glasgow-based artist has painted a massive design for a 72m (239ft) long ship as part of World War One centenary commemorations.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Public service bodies are failing to learn lessons because of complaints being handled in an inadequate way, the ombudsman has said.