Like most tattoo shops, we price by how long the tattoos are expected to take. We have a shop minimum to cover basic costs of doing the tattoo regardless of how tiny or quick it is (you can call for our current minimum). This is a session minimum, not a minimum for each tattoo done in a session, so sometimes it’s cheaper to do tiny tattoos at the same time as another tattoo, big or small.
We will give you a quote before your tattoo appointment, which is usually a range, depending on how long the tattoo actually takes. You might hear, for example, a quote of “$75 to $100” or “$200 to $300,” which is a best-case, worst-case scenario. Some people have skin that takes ink easily, some do not. Some people sit very still, other people are twitchy or have trouble not moving. The same tattoo on two different people can take very different amounts of time, and our pricing reflects that.
In our shop, the average hourly also drops the longer you sit for a tattoo — the first hour is the most expensive, the second a little less expensive, and the third hour is a little cheaper than that. This is because we can average out the cost of the materials and sterilization, which come to about $40-50 per session, regardless of the size or time needed to do your tattoo.
Our best deals are on Half-Day sessions, which save customers about $50-100 compared to our regular pricing, and on our Buy-a-Day full-day sessions, which can save hundreds of dollars when compared to doing a large tattoo in several small sessions, or doing several tattoos in separate sessions. If you’re thinking about multiple tattoos or large work like sleeves and back pieces, talk to us about our current pricing on Half-Days and Buy-a-Days.
Tattoo by Design 