Do tattoo artists charge for drawing time?

Few artists in the threads charge a separate fee for drawing time, and the amounts named run from $25 to $100. Many don't draw until the deposit is paid. A completely new design usually takes a new deposit.

Two messages, same week. One says "love your style, can you draw a few options first and I'll decide?" The other asks what it would cost to buy the drawing and get it tattooed somewhere else.

Not as a separate line item, going by the threads. A separate fee came up in a handful of comments. The time isn't billed on its own line. Artists say the hourly or day rate has to cover the drawing, consult and setup (how to price tattoos). Many hold the drawing until the deposit is in. "I don't draw anything till they drop a deposit and set a date," one commenter wrote (16 upvotes). More in no deposit, no drawing.

Artists disagree. One charges design-only clients the amount of their deposit, "since it's meant to pay for draw time anyway." Another says the deposit doesn't pay them for drawing: it holds the time and goes toward the tattoo. A third calls a $100 deposit on a hand-sized piece insurance in case the client flakes. That artist wanted the $400 tattoo, not $100 for a drawing.

So the same deposit means different things to different artists. Decide what yours covers, and say so before the client pays. Sizing is in how much a tattoo deposit should be.

Few do, and the setups differ:

Those are single comments and single pages. Take them as examples.

A completely different design usually takes a new deposit. One answer in a thread on charging for drawing time said to tell the client the deposit is for the design they booked. A 47-upvote comment in another thread voids the deposit if the client changes the idea completely or by more than 50%.

Shops that write it down say much the same. One studio's deposit page makes substantial changes or an entirely new drawing take a new deposit, and keeps the original as payment for the drawing time. A Rhode Island shop's page says a concept change after drawing starts can make the deposit non-transferable, and that it may require an extra deposit or fee for the added drawing time. Some artists roll the old deposit to a new date instead.

In one thread on dropping a client, the client came an hour late and kept changing the design. The replies went three ways: refund it (35, 27 and 23 upvotes), keep it (22, 20 and 15), or keep a portion for drawing time (11 and 6). My rule: refund it first, then send the message. The full list is in a client wants their tattoo deposit back.

There's no standard. Artists who answered gave these:

Some won't do it at all. One well-liked reply: the artist doing the tattoo should do the design work. Another will draw for a design-only client only if the tattoo is paid up front. In the thread that asked the question directly, the best-liked replies leaned toward the high end or no.

Some do, and it's the closest comparison. In a May 2026 thread on no-show consults, the fees artists said they charge ran from $20 to $50, and some were refunded or credited toward the deposit. Others keep consults free. Not everyone likes paid ones: one commenter called them "super sus," though that comment was downvoted.

Put it in writing before the client pays, next to your cancellation rules, so paying the deposit means agreeing to it. There's a template in the tattoo cancellation policy piece. If you don't charge a separate fee, it can be this short:

If you do charge one, swap the last line for the amount and whether it comes off the price. If you bill for edits, say when: after an agreed number of changes, extra drawing time is billed at [rate]. If you take design-only requests, put that price here too, or say you don't.

Two replies for the messages at the top:

Not as a separate fee. Few in the threads do, and many don't draw until the deposit is paid.

There's no standard. Artists named the deposit amount, 20% of the tattoo price, half the tattoo price credited if they book, an hourly rate with a two-hour minimum, or the full tattoo price. Some refuse.

Artists split. Some say it covers draw time. Others say it only holds the date and goes toward the tattoo.

A completely different design usually takes a new deposit. One studio keeps the original as payment for the drawing time, and some artists roll it to a new date.

Checked October 2026. Quotes and upvote numbers come from r/TattooArtists threads (2024 to 2026) on drawing fees, design-only pricing, revisions, deposits and consult fees, plus three artist and studio pages: two deposit policies and a price page. It's what artists said, not a survey, and separate drawing fees show up in only a handful of comments.

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.