Why “how much will this cost ?” isn’t a simple answer

Tattoo artists have a reputation for being cranky or hard to deal with, especially when it comes to pricing.

I want to clear something up: most of us aren’t cranky — we’re “somewhat exhausted”. Pricing is the single most common question I get. Not once in a while. Not weekly. Multiple times a day, every day. And 98% of the time the people who are asking, never get tattooed.

I’m very transparent about pricing. My rates have been listed on my website for years. I post how long tattoos take. I try to give realistic ballparks whenever possible, and I’ve adjusted how I present pricing over time to make it clearer.
And still, the same question comes up constantly:

“How much will this cost?”

“Can you guarantee it won’t go over?”

“Can we make it fit my budget?”

Here’s the part people don’t always realize. There are a lot of variables that affect tattoo pricing:

size and placement

level of detail

custom design time

how the design needs to flow with the body

existing tattoos and yes — the size of the person.

Another important thing to understand is the kind of tattooing I do. When you book with me, you’re not walking into a $100 walk-in shop choosing flash off the wall. You’re commissioning an artist. It’s much closer to hiring someone to paint a mural on your building than buying a product off a shelf.

Large-scale custom work requires:

extensive planning

design development

problem-solving

and a lot of behind-the-scenes work that isn’t billed by the hour.

I don’t charge separately for design time, even though some artists in the area charge $200+ per hour just for that. Some designs take me days. Some take weeks. That time is built into the overall cost of the tattoo. This is why price ranges exist instead of guarantees.
A range isn’t a trick. It’s an honest estimate based on experience.

Clients should be comfortable with the high end of an estimate when planning a project. That will leave some wiggle room and no surprises.

What becomes difficult — and honestly exhausting — is when someone comes in with a locked-in number and tries to reverse-engineer the tattoo to fit that budget. That often means simplifying ideas, shrinking scope, or forcing decisions that don’t actually lead to the best result. They end up stressing me or trying to force something that just isn’t going to work - and that kind of energy is not how I wanna start a big custom project. I don’t like starting projects where I feel pressured to hit a specific dollar amount instead of focusing on what will look best on that person’s body long-term. I am an artist first and a self-employed business person second. The majority of self-employed artists find pricing to be a difficult task anyway, let alone for something permanent on someone’s body.

Sometimes the best solution takes more time. Sometimes it needs to be larger or composed differently than originally planned. I say this as someone who is also a serious tattoo collector: when I start a project, I go in with an open mind and a flexible budget. I expect to spend money. I plan for wiggle room. That flexibility is what allows artists to do their best work. When people come in with very narrow budgets and expectations, it often works against them. Nine times out of ten, if someone has an unrealistic budget and isn’t willing to adjust scope or timing, they end up going elsewhere anyway. I’m always willing to make a suggestion on how to work within a budget, but in my experience - almost nobody is willing to compromise. It’s bizarre, I know.

That’s part of the job — and honestly, one of the harder parts of it. This isn’t about gatekeeping tattoos or telling people what they should spend. It’s about alignment. Custom tattooing is a long-term investment in your body. If you’re looking for something fixed, fast, or rigidly priced, custom work may not be the best fit — and that’s okay. Not every artist is right for every project. The clients who tend to have the best experiences are the ones who:

plan for the high end of an estimate

understand that large projects happen in stages

allow room for adjustments

and value the time, preparation, and skill involved

Those are the projects that come to fruition. Those are the tattoos everyone is proud of years later.