Why are Tattoos so Expensive?

Over the last 20 years I’ve seen the cost of tattoos change a lot. I remember the days of shop minimums being $20-40. The cost of tattooing itself has also changed. My first apprentice license cost me $50 and lasted 3 years. Now I have to pay the state over $300 every 2 years for mine. Times and costs have changed. 

I know shops in town still charging $40 and I’ve also seen plenty of facebook scratchers charging $30 out of their house. So why do we charge so much to get tattooed in a shop?

Paperwork

The first thing you’re paying for is my license. That piece of state mandated paper requires me to have continued education, a state exam, and to maintain certain cleanliness standards or the state can fine me or even put me in jail. A license is a sign that someone is a professional and that they’re willing to uphold those standards and be held to them. You can check if your artist or piercer is licensed through DPOR board of Barbers and Cosmetology who regulates Virginia professionals. 

Their license is required to be displayed in their station. If they don’t have one ask why? There are artists who can choose to license someone even if they’re not an actual apprentice. If no one is willing to then it’s likely their character or work has something wrong with it. Licensing is bare minimum in Virginia and most of what you need to know to pass your boards is about cleanliness. Why wouldn’t your artist want to keep that standard?




I also choose to keep up with my education beyond the state requirements. I’m an APT member, I also take extra classes to learn new techniques like cosmetic and college anatomy. I not only have 20 years of experience but I also know more about your skin and what your ink is made of than most people ever care to learn. The state requires 6 hours to keep up with bloodborne pathogens and first aid, not anything that actually affects our daily tattooing such as ink regulation. 

Taxes

Death and taxes right? There’s always taxes. As contractors we pay an exorbitant amount of it. Taxes consume something like 30% of our income and that isn’t including what we pay for shop fees or booth rent. Out of every $100 by the time we take out taxes and fees just to do a tattoo we’re already looking at half of that money. 

We also have to pay to work. Unless you own the shop a portion of every tattoo goes into paying the lights, water, and general running costs that the owner pays. Whether that’s as booth rent or as a percentage. Most artists work similar to hair stylists and we either pay a set booth rent or work on commission. So just like your hair stylist relies on tips so too do we at times. Your $50 tattoo by the time we pay out costs and materials becomes $10-15 or less and that’s not including the cost of our time spent drawing and preparing outside of your appointment. 

Materials

I buy materials from professional medical companies. This means my equipment is sterile and medical grade as much as possible. I can buy razors at the dollar tree or popsicle sticks at Walmart. Instead I choose to pay more and buy sterile ones that are medical grade. On top of that I also take additional precautions for my clients. I use surgical wipes before I do anything to your skin. These are guaranteed to kill MRSA and other risks which soap alone may not.



I also use high quality needles to make sure that they are consistent and that the materials they are made from are body safe. Not all metals are created equal and back in the day when we used steel tubes small particles of steel would make their way into your tattoo. We don’t want that to happen anymore so the companies whose cartridges I buy are certified to medical standards. 

The same is true of my inks. You’ll see a lot about companies having bacteria recalls for ink that are made in some distant part of the world. The companies I use have sterile bottles and are made in the US to our standards. It’s rare to hear of these being contaminated or recalled. 





If your artist is ordering Russian ink off of amazon and needles from Ali Express then you should probably run. Products that are not created with US standards may not be sterile, may have faked certificates, and may contain levels of metals not allowed in US production. 

Cleanliness

Is your house clean? Be honest. Would you get a surgical procedure there? Then why would you consider getting tattooed in someone else’s house? Their house is not likely to be any cleaner. Body modification requires a certain level of cleanliness. Hospital grade disinfectants and autoclaves are really the most minimal part and these things cost money. Most autoclaves are $5000 or more and need monthly testing to make sure they are sterile (plot twist, even though the state requires it many studios skip doing this so they don’t even know if their clave is fully sterile. You can always ask to see a copy of their log!) 

I also take extra precautions for my clients including surgical wipes, and a UV sanitizing machine for my machines. These also cost money. 




The education to know what products to use is only the beginning. Our sanitation wipes have to have a 2 minute kill time minimum (most are 3-6) and be tuberculocidal. They have to kill more than just your average Clorox wipe and yet I have seen artists using regular kitchen Clorox wipes instead. Bleach actually loses its ability to sanitize the longer it is in contact with the air and is only considered to be for emergency sterilization purposes. But let’s be fair, no matter how important your tattoo or piercing is it is unlikely to be an emergency. Each of those boxes of wipes costs between $15-30 EACH and we will go through a box within a busy day or two. 

Experience 

Our studio offers an experience to our clients. By coming to a studio you get to hang out with us, and you get to experience all we can offer like a snack bar, charging station and refreshment area in our bathroom. We may not be the cheapest or the most expensive, but we want our clients to feel at home just hanging out while they’re getting their modifications done. Above all we want you to feel like you’re in a safe environment. All these things cost more and more.   



Keep tuned on my socials as I’ll be sharing a video of my station and all of the various jars and things that I use to keep myself organized and to keep everything I need at hand for you to have a safe and enjoyable experience!

Questions? Feel free to Contact me!

#tattoos #tattooing #safetattoos #apt #licensed #professionaltattooing #tattooartist #femaletattooist #womenwhotattoo #tattoogirls #damnitdeb #virginia #roanokevirginia #bookme #tattooeducation #clienteducation #

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