08/21/2026
LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE PRICE-SHOPPING TATTOOS!
Client: “How much for this?”
Artist: gives them a quote
Client: “That’s way too expensive. I’ll go somewhere else.”
And somewhere, a tattoo artist just whispered:
“Godspeed.” 😂
And sometimes, a few weeks later, we see the result. 😬
If somebody is offering to do a large, detailed, difficult, or highly visible tattoo for bargain-bin prices, you should probably be asking why.
Tattooing is not just buying a bottle of ink and plugging in a machine.
But please understand:
“I can’t afford it” and “you’re charging too much” are NOT the same thing.
Your hands, neck, face, fingers, and other highly visible areas are not the places to shop for the lowest bidder.
You’re paying for professional-grade cartridges, quality pigments, sterile disposable supplies, sanitation, equipment, licensing, insurance, design time, setup, breakdown, and HOURS of work.
But most importantly?
You’re paying for the artist’s skill.
Years of drawing. Years of tattooing. Years of learning how skin behaves. Years of learning saturation, depth, placement, composition, line weight, shading, color theory, and how to make a tattoo still look good YEARS from now.
When one artist gives you a higher quote and someone else says they can do it for a fraction of the price, that doesn’t necessarily mean you found the same tattoo cheaper.
You may be comparing two completely different levels of tattooing.
Because a cheap tattoo can become a VERY expensive tattoo once you’re paying someone else to fix it.
A good tattoo is expensive once.
A bad tattoo can be expensive for the rest of your life.
Artists, I want to hear the WILDEST “I found someone cheaper” story you’ve ever seen.
