Tattoo pricing has to cover session work, design time, shop terms, and tax reserves. Everhour keeps billable work organized after the rate is set.
Find the right rate based on your annual expenses, desired profit margin, and available billable hours. Stop guessing.
Rent, software, gear, salary
Time lost to admin, marketing, etc.
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A tattoo artist hourly rate calculation answers one practical question: the client-facing price needed to support your target annual income after shop commission, booth rent, supplies, insurance, infection-control costs, benefits substitute, and tax reserves. The answer can support hourly pricing, flat-piece quotes, or day rates because each format still depends on the same retained hourly target.
The calculation also separates payroll wage benchmarks from independent pricing. BLS May 2025 OEWS does not publish tattoo artists as a separate occupation. The closest payroll proxies are Fine Artists at a $26.68 median hourly wage and Artists and Related Workers, All Other at $34.25, but OEWS excludes self-employed workers, owners, and partners in unincorporated firms.
Use this formula for self-employed or booth-renting tattoo work: `(target income + overhead + benefits substitute + tax reserve) / realistic billable session hours`. Overhead includes ordinary business costs such as booth rent, machine maintenance, inks, needles, gloves, barrier film, booking tools, insurance, licensing costs where applicable, and accounting support. Benefits substitute covers the retirement, health, paid leave, and downtime protection you fund yourself.
For example, a tattoo artist wants $78,000 of income, expects $21,000 of overhead, sets aside $12,100 for self-funded benefits, and reserves $22,000 for federal income tax and 2026 self-employment tax planning. If 1,100 hours are realistically billable during the year after design time, setup, cleanup, rescheduling gaps, consultations, and admin, the retained hourly rate is $121.00.
A retained hourly rate is not always the same number you show the client. Commission-model tattoo shops commonly take 40% to 50% of the tattoo price, so an artist on a 45% shop cut keeps 55% before personal taxes and benefits. A $121 retained target requires a $220 client-facing hourly price because $220 multiplied by 55% equals $121.
Flat quotes and day rates need the same check. A four-hour tattoo priced at $750 produces $187.50 per client hour before the shop cut. With a 45% shop cut, the artist retains $103.13 per session hour before personal tax reserves, which falls short of the $121 retained target. Deposits, often $50 to $200, protect design time and scheduling risk, but they do not replace the full rate calculation.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need a fast check before changing your hourly rate, quoting a custom piece, or comparing a day rate with a session estimate. It also works when your shop terms, supply costs, and billable calendar stay stable for the season.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when you need to track design time, client sessions, non-billable admin, expenses, deposits, and uninvoiced work across multiple clients. Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices, calculates invoice amounts from rates while excluding non-billable tasks, and exports invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Count only hours you can charge to a client, such as tattoo sessions, paid design time, paid consultations, and booked day-rate work. Exclude unpaid drawing time, cleaning, sterilization, social media, supply ordering, client messages, cancellations, bookkeeping, travel, and empty chair time. Using 2,080 paid work hours makes the rate too low for self-employed tattoo pricing.
Shop commission should increase the client-facing price needed to hit your retained target. If a shop keeps 45% of the tattoo price, the artist keeps 55%. Divide the retained hourly target by 0.55 to find the client price. A $121 retained target becomes $220 per client hour before any separate treatment of deposits, supplies, or tips.
Tattoo overhead includes booth rent or chair fees, supplies, machine maintenance, booking software, card processing fees, insurance, accounting, licensing costs where applicable, and infection-control costs. OSHA states tattooing generates blood and can fall under the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard when workers have occupational exposure, so PPE, regulated sharps disposal, hepatitis B vaccination, post-exposure follow-up, housekeeping, and decontamination belong in the cost base.
Flat pricing works well for many pieces, but the flat quote still needs an implied hourly check. Divide the client price by expected session hours, then apply the shop split if there is one. A $900 piece that takes five client hours produces $180 per client hour. With a 45% shop cut, the retained hourly amount is $99.
Self-employed tattoo artists generally report business profit or loss on Schedule C and use Schedule SE for Social Security and Medicare taxes. For 2026 estimated tax, net self-employment profit is multiplied by 92.35%, then 12.4% Social Security applies up to the $184,500 wage base and 2.9% Medicare applies without that cap. Quarterly estimated taxes replace employer withholding.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing turns tracked billable time and expenses into client invoices, using project or member rates while excluding non-billable tasks. Invoice line items can be grouped by project, task, person, date, or another available breakdown, then exported to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks.
Everhour supports billable and non-billable time through project billing status and task-level non-billable controls. A tattoo artist can keep client session time billable while marking admin, cleanup logs, redraws, or internal planning as non-billable, then review billable time, non-billable time, billable amount, and cost in reports.
Track tattoo sessions, deposits, expenses, and non-billable admin in Everhour, then generate invoices from approved billable time for cleaner client billing and accounting handoff.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
