Tattoo Artist

Draw on skin for a living. An apprenticeship, a license in most states, and a portfolio that has to be good.

Typical pay: $71,240a year
Time to qualify: 2 to 4 yearsafter high school
Demand: Limited
License needed: Dependsneeded in 30 states

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Quick answers

How much does a tattoo artist make in the United States?

The median pay is about $71,240 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $36,580 at the lower end to about $136,660 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become a tattoo artist in the United States?

2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become a tattoo artist?

$1,700 to $12,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a license to work as a tattoo artist in the United States?

It depends where you work. You need a license, certificate or registration in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.

What is the job outlook for a tattoo artist in the United States?

Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Tattoo Artist salary in the United States

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What tattoo artists make

Median for the group

$71,240

Bottom tenth

$36,580

Top tenth

$136,660

There is no separate federal wage line for tattoo artists. They are lumped into a residual group called Artists and Related Workers, All Other, where the 2025 figures are $36,580 or less for the bottom tenth, $71,240 in the middle and $136,660 or more for the top tenth. Treat the middle as a rough marker, not a measurement of this job: most tattoo artists are self-employed, and self-employed people are largely missing from the survey.

During your apprenticeship

Often nothing, sometimes less than nothing

One to three years learning in a shop

Tattoo apprenticeships are usually unpaid, and some shops charge a fee for the training. You clean, set up stations, draw constantly and work the counter. Plan to hold a second job through it, because almost everybody does.

How the money actually works

Booth rent or a split

You are almost never an employee

Most artists either pay the shop a flat weekly booth rent and keep everything they earn, or split each tattoo with the shop, often somewhere near half and half. Either way you cover your own needles, ink, machines and often your own health insurance, and you set aside your own taxes.

What it costs to get there

Apprenticeship: Unpaid for 1 to 3 years, and some shops charge a training fee
Bloodborne pathogen training: Usually $25 to $150, renewed on the schedule your state sets
Artist license where required, and studio permit: Varies widely by state, commonly tens to a few hundred dollars each
Your first kit: $1,500 to $4,000 for machines, power supply, needles, ink and a chair
Ongoing supplies: Hundreds a month once you are working full time

Roughly, all in

$1,700 to $12,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The low end is bloodborne pathogen training at $25 to $150, an artist license where your state has one and a studio permit at tens to a few hundred dollars each, and a first kit of machines, power supply, needles, ink and a chair. The high end is a shop that charges a training fee for the apprenticeship, which is common and can run several thousand dollars, plus a better kit at up to $4,000. Neither figure counts the bigger cost: the apprenticeship is typically one to three years unpaid, so you need another income the whole time. There is no federal student aid for a shop apprenticeship, though a community college art course alongside it can be covered by the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

There is no federal student aid for this, because an apprenticeship in a shop is not a school. If you take a community college art course alongside it, that part can be covered by the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

What you do and do not get

No employer benefits
Self-employed artists buy their own health insurance and have no paid sick days.
No paid vacation
A week off is a week with no income and booth rent still due.
You set your own prices
Hourly rates or a flat price per piece. Established artists charge what their waiting list will bear.
Conventions
Travel, exposure and cash work. They cost money to attend and are how reputations get built.

How to become a tattoo artist in the United States

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a tattoo artist, step by step

No degree, no school that counts for much. A portfolio gets you an apprenticeship and the apprenticeship gets you everything else.

1
Draw, constantly
Years, starting now
Fill sketchbooks. Shops want to see line quality, shading and the ability to design something that will still read in ten years.
2
Build a portfolio
6 to 18 months
Thirty to a hundred finished drawings, not doodles. Tattoo-ready designs in the styles you want to work in.
3
Get an apprenticeship
Months of trying
The hard step. You walk into shops, show the book, get turned down, improve it and go back. Personality matters as much as skill.
4
Apprentice
1 to 3 years
Cleaning, setup, sterilization, drawing, then practice skin, then friends who agreed to it, then paying clients.
5
License and first chair
Weeks
Bloodborne pathogen training, your state's artist license if it has one, then booth rent or a split at a shop.

High school courses that help you become a tattoo artist

Art, especially drawing
Line confidence and shading are the whole technical base of the job.
Anatomy or biology
You are working on a curved, moving surface and you need to understand skin.
Business
You will be a small business from day one: pricing, taxes, bookings, deposits.
Health science
Infection control is the part of the job that can actually hurt someone.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 2 to 4
Admission: A shop decides. There is no application form and no appeal
Total cost: $1,700 to $12,000, plus lost income during the apprenticeship
Paid while training?: Usually not

Licensed state by state, not nationally

There is no national tattoo license. 29 states and DC (the District of Columbia) require each artist to hold a license, permit or registration; in California the county issues it under state law. Other states, such as Texas, Illinois and Ohio, license only the studio, and a few leave it to cities and counties. Oregon licenses artists through its Health Licensing Office. Check your own state first.

Where people learn

A shop apprenticeship
The only route the trade actually respects. Everything else is a supplement to it.
Community college art classes
Drawing, figure work and design, cheap and in-state, while you build the portfolio.
Alliance of Professional Tattooists courses
A nonprofit trade body since 1992 that runs the Prevention of Disease Transmission in Tattooing course in person and a refresher online.
Be careful with tattoo schools
Paid tattoo schools exist and most working artists do not rate them. A certificate from one will not get you a chair.

What helps you get ahead as a tattoo artist

Things you don't need, but that help.

Specialties that build a waiting list

Blackwork and fine line
Two of the biggest demands right now, and very different hand skills.
Realism and portrait
Long sessions, high prices, and unforgiving of mistakes.
Japanese traditional
A deep tradition with its own rules. Takes years and usually a mentor.
Cover-ups
Fixing other people's work. Difficult, and always in demand.
Scar and areola restoration
Cosmetic and medical tattooing after surgery. Steady, meaningful and often referred by clinics.

Nice-to-haves

A real social media presence
It is how clients find artists now. Clean photos of healed work, not just fresh work.
Digital drawing
Most artists design on a tablet and print the stencil. It saves hours a week.
A driver's license and a reliable car
Guest spots at other shops and conventions are how you grow outside your own town.
Basic accounting
Self-employed income means quarterly tax payments. Learn this before your first year ends.

Owning a shop

A lot of artists eventually open their own studio. You take on the lease, the health inspections, the studio permit, insurance, and the job of keeping other artists busy and happy. Income goes up if the shop fills, and the hours you spend tattooing go down, because you are now running a business. Plenty of excellent artists try it, dislike it, and go back to renting a booth somewhere they respect.

What being a tattoo artist is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

What a tattoo artist does day to day

You come in before your first appointment to draw the stencil and set up a clean station. Then a consultation, then the tattoo itself, which might be an hour or might be five with breaks. Between clients you break down the station, disinfect everything, set up again, answer messages and book the next month. Evenings are drawing for tomorrow. Saturdays are the busiest day of the week, so this is not a career with normal weekends.

The honest pros and cons of being a tattoo artist

The good

You get paid to draw, and people keep the work forever
No degree and no student debt required
You control your own schedule, prices and the work you take
A strong portfolio travels: artists guest at shops all over the country

The hard parts

One to three unpaid years before you earn anything
No sick pay, no paid holidays and no employer health insurance
Income swings hard with the season and your booking list
Back, neck and wrist injuries end careers, and mistakes are permanent on somebody else's body

Work life

Typical hours: Around 35 to 45 a week, weekends and evenings included
Remote work: None, though designing is done anywhere
Physical demand: Moderate: long hours hunched over, hard on hands and back
Unionized: No

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a tattoo artist

Things people don't tell you.

The safety body does not police anyone

The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, a nonprofit since 1992, runs disease transmission training, but it says plainly that it does not license, certify or police tattooists. Enforcement is the state's job.

The rules change at the county line

Tattooing is regulated by states and sometimes by individual counties, so the training, fees and inspections you need can be completely different an hour's drive away. There is no national license to rely on.

How a tattoo artist compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

Highest paying skilled trades in the US16 of 84

More skilled trades careers in the US

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Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.