Tattoo Artist

What tattoo artists make

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 published figures were $31,310 at the bottom tenth, $74,750 in the middle and $128,270 at 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

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

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

State artist license 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, a state artist licence and 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.

The path

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

1. 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. 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. 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. 4

   Apprentice

   1 to 3 years

   Cleaning, setup, sterilization, drawing, then practice skin, then friends who agreed to it, then paying clients.

5. 5

   License and first chair

   Weeks

   Bloodborne pathogen training, your state's artist license, then booth rent or a split at a shop.

High school courses that help

• 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

$2,000 to $10,000, plus lost income during the apprenticeship

Paid while training?

Usually not

Licensed state by state, not nationally

There is no national tattoo license. Each state, and sometimes each county, sets its own rules. Texas licenses studios through the Department of State Health Services, and since January 2023 those permits are filed through its online licensing system. Oregon runs one of the tighter systems in the country, licensing body art practitioners through the Health Licensing Office and its Board of Electrologists and Body Art Practitioners. Most states require bloodborne pathogen training, an inspected studio, and set 18 as the minimum age for a customer. A few have almost no rules at all. Check your own state before you plan anything, because the requirements are not similar.

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 founded in 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.

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, well paid, 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.

A typical 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 trade-offs

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

• Visual ArtistMake the work, then find the people who will pay for it. Almost nobody does this without a second income at the start.
• IllustratorDraw for a living: books, games, magazines, packaging, anything that needs a picture doing a job.
• EstheticianFacials, peels and hair removal. Licensed in under a year, then you build a client list.

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 and no reciprocity to rely on.

The safety body does not police anyone

The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, founded in 1992, publishes health and safety guidance and runs disease transmission training, but it says plainly that it does not license, certify or police tattooists. Enforcement is the state's job.

Healed work is the real portfolio

A fresh tattoo always looks sharp. Experienced artists judge each other on photos taken months later, because that is when bad line work spreads and shading falls apart.

You are a small business, immediately

Most artists are not employees. They rent a booth or split each piece with the shop, which means invoices, deposits, supplies and quarterly tax payments are part of the job from your first week in a chair.