Tattoo Artist Salary

How much money do tattoo artists really make?

A tattooers salary varies greatly depending on many factors including where the artist works, how they put in etc. Basic street level tattoo artists generally charge between 100 and 125 dollars an hour to do average commercial style tattooing. Custom tattooing can vary even more in pricing depending on how well known and sought after the artist is. Some very well know national artist are currently commanding between 350 and 500 per hour and are booked for years.

All things being equal lets assume a tattoo artist makes 100 dollars per hour per tattoo. Industry standard is that the tattoo artist receives a fifty percent commission lets say the tattooer does an average of four tattoos a day five days a week. Gives the tattooist a thousand dollars a week or fifty two thousand dollars a year.

$100  X 4 = $ 400 / 50% = $200 x 5 = $1000 x 52 = $52,000 per year.

In reality while there are definitely many tattoo artists making this amount and more per year there are also many more tattooers making quite less. Not listed in this equation is that the tattoo artist has several expenses including equipment,cleaning supplies, maintenance of equipment and area. In the tattoo business many people find that work is not consistent often resulting in a "boom or bust" type business model where many tattoo artists make the majority of their yearly income in a matter of a few months.