It is a lace paint job. To decal the whole car would be a nightmare,trying to get it all square.
To lace a body like this first paint the entire care with your base color.Then mask off the sides, lace it and mask the top and lace the sides.
Counting the coats is the way to get even lace patterns.Then pearl and or clear the whole car.
This is a real tough paint job to pull off. If you watch American Chopper on TV, Nub did a "reptile" like paint on the give a way bike for the blond...
stockings streched over the base gave him the "scales" Good luck!