Many tattoo artists still struggle with how much to charge for a tattoo. That is fair. Pricing your own art is not an easy task, so we hope this helps you get some clarity the next time you have to give a quote. And the good news is that it starts with a single question.
The one question that guides everything
So, quick question: how much would you like to make per month? This number will guide the entire calculation.
Be honest with yourself. Look at your niche, your location, and what the best-positioned artists around you charge per session, then answer with a number that is genuinely your goal but still grounded in reality.
To show you how it works, let us say your answer is a round 10,000 dollars. Sounds good? Then let us work with that. If not, remember, you just adjust the numbers based on what you believe is fair. The 10k is only a starting point to teach you how to price a tattoo in a simple and effective way.
Turn your monthly goal into an hourly rate
If your goal is 10,000 dollars per month and you work around 8 hours a day, about 48 hours a week, that is roughly 192 hours per month.
To reach 10,000 dollars, your hourly rate needs to be around 52 dollars.
That number is the engine of everything that follows. Now let us run a real example through it.
A worked example, step by step
Imagine you receive a request for a forearm tattoo, with enough detail that you estimate a full-day session of about 8 hours to deliver your best quality.
Is that it? No. Keep going, because a session is not the whole job.
You also need to account for touch-ups. The safe approach is to add around 3 to 4 extra hours. Now you are looking at a total of roughly 12 predictable hours of work.
At 52 dollars an hour, that gives you 624 dollars.
Done? Not yet. Now add the studio fee. Let us say your studio takes a 30 percent commission per tattoo. To avoid hurting your monthly goal, you need to build that into your price:
624 dollars plus 30 percent equals 811.20 dollars.
Are we good now? Still no. You also have material costs: needles, ink, general products, gloves, masks, and everything else that gets used up. To keep it simple, add another 15 percent to cover those expenses. So for now we are at about 933 dollars.
Where strategy comes in
Here is the part most guides skip.
If you sense the client might try to negotiate or push for a lower price, you can position the tattoo at 1,000 to 1,200 dollars, and then offer a discount that closes the deal at around 900 dollars. That way you avoid losing money to the discount itself, which a good share of clients will ask for anyway. You protect your margin and still create a sense of value for the client.
Quick note: we are not here to debate whether you should accept discounts or not. That is a separate topic, and you can expect an article on it very soon. This is about how to price a tattoo, so the two stay separate for now.
The full breakdown
So, putting it all together for our example:
The tattoo itself, 8 hours at 52 dollars: about 416 dollars.
Add 4 hours for touch-ups, 12 hours total: about 624 dollars.
Add the 30 percent studio commission: about 811 dollars.
Add 15 percent for materials: about 933 dollars.
So your final price lands at roughly 930 dollars.
This is a starting point, not a rule
Of course, this is not a law. It is a foundation.
At the end of the day, you are charging fairly, covering your costs, paying your commissions, and staying aligned with your financial goals. This calculation can get much more complex once you add taxes, advertising, team costs, software, AI tools and other business expenses. But even in its simple form, it is already a solid base to build on.
Also remember: you estimated 8 hours, but you might finish in 6, or use the full 8 and need no touch-up at all. Or you might need all 12 hours depending on the client's skin. Every scenario is possible, and that is exactly why you should not ignore any of these costs when you set the price.
Does this make sense to you? If yes, start here. If not, let us talk. The comment section is open.
Fun fact: if your goal is 100,000 dollars a month, your hourly rate jumps to around 520 dollars. Which means the exact same forearm tattoo we just priced would no longer cost about 930 dollars. It would cost something close to 9,300.
