How to set your tattoo shop minimum

Most US artists set their tattoo shop minimum around $100, with a range of about $60 to $200. It covers setup, supplies, cleanup and a short stretch of tattooing, and past that your hourly takes over. Busy, in-demand artists run higher, $150 to $200.

Someone sends a screenshot of a tiny heart for their wrist and asks how much. Ten minutes of tattooing. The stencil, the setup and the cleanup take their own time, and at $150 an hour those ten minutes come to $25.

It's the lowest price you'll charge for any tattoo, however small. $100 is the most common number in artist threads and studio pricing pages.

It pays for the setup plus a short stretch of work. One commenter with 15 years of getting tattooed described $100 as covering anything from a single dot to about a one-hour walk-in, and past that it turns into the artist's hourly. A Denver studio's post on its rates has a $100 minimum and says a minimum covers consultation, setup, sterile supplies, breakdown and cleaning.

It climbs with the market and with demand. An artist 35 years in, waitlist only, charges $200 an hour with a $150 minimum. Two San Francisco commenters in a thread on face tattoos put theirs at $200.

Most artists pick a flat number. Check yours against shops near you. One way to test it: price your setup and teardown at your hourly, add the least tattooing you'd do the job for, and compare the total to your number.

Say you charge $150 an hour and setup and teardown run 20 minutes. That's $50 of your time. Add 20 minutes of tattooing, another $50, and you're at $100, plus supplies. If setup runs 40 minutes, it's $150 plus supplies.

Three pairs artists have posted:

That works out to 40, 45 and 60 minutes of the hourly. Others run lower: an upper-Midwest shop with artists at $140 to $200 an hour keeps a $100 minimum.

When you raise your hourly, check the minimum against it. At $200 an hour, a $100 minimum buys half an hour. One rule of thumb from a pricing thread: every year or two, raise the hourly one time and the minimum the next. The signs are the same as for any raise: books full months out, clients who don't blink at the price. How to raise it is in how to raise your tattoo prices, and the rest of the numbers are in how to price tattoos.

Artists split, and the louder side says don't.

In a thread from a shop owner who wanted out of tiny pieces, a few replies said to raise the minimum until most small tattoos price themselves out. One charges $300 for anything. Another charges $180 an hour with a two-hour minimum, which is $360.

The top reply in that thread went the other way. Small tattoos pay the bills, a few commenters said, and those clients book big pieces later. In a pricing thread, one artist said sub-$500 pieces pay their bills. Another, in Montana, said chasing them "always costs more in time and sanity than it produces," and goes after all-day clients at $1,250 and up.

If you go high, say the number once and don't explain. Passing small pieces to a shopmate is covered in how to turn down a tattoo client.

Post it. Most artists post the minimum and flat flash prices, and quote custom work after the inquiry. When someone asks anyway, one line does it:

If yours is high, the line is just the number. Explaining your years or what supplies cost invites a negotiation.

Flash is the exception: it has its own posted price by size. Some artists price small flash right at the minimum to fill quiet weeks, as in tattoo slow season.

About $100 in the US, with a range of $60 to $200. Busy, in-demand artists run higher, $150 to $200. It covers setup, cleanup and a small piece.

Most artists pick a flat number, so check yours against shops near you. One test: price your setup and teardown at your hourly, add the least tattooing you'd do the job for, and compare. At $150 an hour, 20 minutes of each is $100, plus supplies.

Check it whenever you raise your hourly. One rule of thumb: every year or two, raise the hourly one time and the minimum the next.

Artists split. Some set $300 or a two-hour minimum to thin out small pieces. The louder side keeps them, because small clients come back for big ones.

Checked October 2026. Numbers come from artist threads on r/TattooArtists and r/TattooApprentice (2024 to 2026) and a couple of US studio and artist pricing pages. It's what artists report, not a survey. The minutes-of-your-hourly figures and the worked example are our arithmetic, not an artist's rule. 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.