How much?

As a tattoo artist this is often a question we are faced with. When we open our facebook, emails, phone calls or someone walking into the studio, its usually, "How much for this?" And we are all aware that money isn't easy to come by now a days. We all have bills to pay, gas prices are on the rise and some people don't make much at the jobs they may be fortunate to have. And quite often if its something relativity small then we can toss out a ballpark figure for a simple one sitting piece. But what grinds my gears is the, "How much for this?" when its a full sleeve or back piece. A large project takes time. I know, on TV they do full back pieces in the hour it takes to film the show right? Uh, nooooo. These shows are edited, most are scripted too but lets not get off subject. I recently found a picture posted by an artist on face book.

The caption was, "Peacock" tattoo done in 3 days, 24 hours, during the Milan tattoo convention 2013, he participated in the contest for Best of Show". Now, this is a large piece, no doubt, and its very well done, obviously. But, do you see how much untouched skin STILL remains on his back? And this is after 24 hours of work. Twenty four hours! Not all at once. Sure, he sat three days in a row so I figure he probably did three eight hour sessions. Now most sessions I do on fairly large pieces are 2-3 hours. And for those we charge an hourly rate. So now imagine a full sleeve or back piece. I don't think most of my clients want to sit for 8 hours at a time but even at three hours that's a total of 8 sessions to get that far. And at an hourly rate of even $100 that would be $2,400 before tax. And that's not a fully covered back. Large pieces are a commitment. And not all backs or arms are the same size nor have the same amount of detail in them. So for us to just toss out a random price is next to impossible. 

Now some of you might be thinking that $100 and hour is pretty steep for hourly work. And since I only work in one studio this is what I'm going to do. Today I'm going to anonymously email all of the local studios and find out how much they charge per hour. I will then compare our hourly rate to those other studios to see how we fair. I want to be informed as to what our competitors are charging and why you feel you'd get a better deal elsewhere.

I hope this sheds some light on the subject of pricing tattoos for those of you who may not have understood. Take care and thanks for reading! :)