How to price tattoos: hourly, by the piece or a day rate

Most established US tattoo artists charge $150 to $200 an hour. Big cities run $200 to $300, small towns $100 to $150, and artists starting out $80 to $100. Most use a mix: a flat price for flash and small pieces, hourly or a day rate for big work, and a shop minimum around $100.

"What should my hourly be?" gets asked over and over. In one recent thread, an early reply was another question: are you fast or slow? The rate the client sees also has to pay for the drawing, the setup and the messages they never see.

What working US artists report, roughly:

Market sets the ceiling more than anything. A well-liked comment put it bluntly: in the sticks, good luck charging more than $100. Check your own area by having a friend ask a few nearby shops for a quote on the same piece. And in some shops the owner sets the rate for everyone, so the question is settled for you.

Whether years or skill should set the number is a real argument. One camp says nobody a couple of years in should be at $200. The other points to an artist three years in, booked solid at $200, and says skill sets the price. Either way, if your books are full at your current rate, you're probably low.

Most working artists don't pick one. They mix:

Artists argue about which suits whom. Fast artists often prefer pricing by the piece, because hourly pays them less for being quick. But plenty of artists say per piece suits slower artists too, because a slow artist charging hourly puts clients off. Both camps are real. Pick the model that's fair to the client at your speed. Switching from per piece to hourly? Work backward: a three-hour piece you sold for $450 means $150 an hour.

To price a piece, estimate the hours, multiply by your hourly, and quote a range. Then estimate high. One artist adds two hours to every estimate. If a piece runs past the top of your range, many artists eat the difference, which is exactly why the range should be generous. If you come in under, you can knock a little off.

Day rates in US threads cluster around $450 to $800 for a half day and $800 to $1,500 for a full day, usually working out a bit under your hourly. Decide in advance what happens if the client taps out early. Artists split on it: charge the full day if that's what was agreed, charge for the hours sat, or meet in the middle for a client who sat well. Whatever you pick, put it in writing before the day.

Hard skin and awkward placements mostly don't get a surcharge. Most artists charge their normal hourly and quote a wider range. One artist's whole answer to it: "I charge $180 an hour. It costs what it costs." Cover-ups get priced on the time they'll take, which is usually more than the same size on clean skin.

$100 is the most common, with a range of about $60 to $200. Some busier artists and shops sit at $150 to $200.

A minimum covers what it costs you to set up, open fresh supplies, tear down and clean, plus enough time to do something small properly. One way it gets described: $100 covers anything from a dot to about an hour, and past that it turns into your hourly.

When you raise prices, some artists alternate. Raise the hourly one year, the minimum the next.

Your posted rate only gets paid for needle time. It also has to cover the consult, the drawing, the stencil, setup and teardown, messages, and the books. A custom piece can carry hours of drawing nobody pays for directly. Then take off the shop's cut and taxes.

One artist with 34 years in laid out the math like this. Start with what a year costs you: health insurance, self-employment tax, your own insurance, licensing and gear, plus what you need to live on. Say that's $60,000. Count your billable hours honestly: three hours of actual tattooing a day, four days a week, 50 weeks, is 600 hours. $60,000 ÷ 600 is $100 an hour. That's what you need to keep after the shop's cut, before income tax. On a 50/50 split, your posted rate has to be $200 to get there.

The other quick check: take your last ten pieces, write down what you charged and how long each took, drawing included. Divide one by the other.

Many artists start the clock when the needle touches skin, and build setup and the stencil into the rate. If you start it at the booked start time instead, say so up front.

When your books are full months out, when coworkers tell you you're cheap, or when clients say "oh, that's it?" when they hear the price. A useful check: if new requests come in faster than you can finish sessions, your price is low.

How to do it splits artists. Most raise in steps, about $20 an hour, then hold for six months to a year. Others argue one bigger jump beats years of small ones. And some skip the announcement: new inquiries get the new price, and the old rate fades out with old clients. If you do announce it:

What not to do is drop your prices when it's slow. Regulars feel overcharged, and new clients learn to wait for the next sale. There's more on that in what to do in slow season.

Say the price once. Offer a way to make it fit: a smaller version, less detail, or the same piece split over sessions so they pay as they go. Then stop explaining. Every extra sentence about your years or your supplies turns it into a negotiation. And no discounts: they bring in hagglers and annoy the clients who paid full price. There's wording for this in how to answer tattoo inquiries in your DMs.

Post your minimum and a flat price for every flash piece. Quote custom work once you know the size and placement. That's where most artists land, and clients like it: they say it helps them budget and pick an artist. As one artist put it, it saves twenty emails asking the price of a flash piece from people who were never going to book.

Holding back your full rate until someone's ready to book is fine. One commenter's view on hiding everything: fine if you're booked up, a bad idea for everyone else.

Most established artists charge $150 to $200 an hour. Big cities run $200 to $300, small towns $100 to $150, and newer artists $80 to $100.

Most artists mix: a flat price for flash and small pieces, hourly or a day rate for big work. Which suits you depends on your speed and what's fair to the client.

About $100, with most between $60 and $200. It covers setup, supplies and cleanup, plus a small piece.

Most raise in steps of about $20 an hour every six to twelve months, when their books are full. Honor quotes already given.

Checked October 2026. Rates are what artists report in r/TattooArtists threads (2024 to 2026) and on studio pages, not a survey. Non-US figures are left out.

Gal, founder of Collabo.ink, the booking app for tattoo artists. For 15 years I booked sessions for dozens of artists, some of them among the best known in the world. Collabo.ink takes your bookings and deposits, so you can focus on what matters: tattooing.