How much do tattoos cost?

THE UK is the most tattooed country in the world with more than 13 million adults sporting at least one inking on their bodies.

Celebrities like Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Rita Ora – who boast more than 150 tattoos between them – have helped fuel a billion-pound industry.

Tattoo artist at workCredit: Getty - Contributor

The cost of being inked varies wildly depending on the design and where in the UK the tattooist works.

Top tattoo artists in London charge around £150-an-hour, with the average inking taking 90 minutes, while in Leeds it costs around £90-an-hour.

However, the meter is always running so squeamish customers often pay more if they need longer breaks to cope with the pain.

Most tattooists offer a choice of pre-drawn designs which cost considerably less than bespoke motifs, particularly ones with intricate details and multiple colours.

Where a customer wants the tattoo also determines the price, with back and arm tatts being cheaper than those in hard to reach or intimate areas.

Ed Sheeran has at least 60 pieces of body art but even his own tattooist once admitted that many of them are "sh*t"Credit: Refer to Caption

How do you figure out how much a tattoo will cost?

Pricing up a tattoo depends on multiple factors including size, location of the design, experience of the artist and time under the needle.

Most tattoo artists have a rough idea of how much and how long a tattoo will take so there shouldn’t be any nasty surprises at the end of the procedure.

As a rule of thumb, simple, small single-colour tatts on a wrist or ankle cost between £60-£80 while larger intricate inkings run into many hundreds.

Harry Styles showed off his many tattoos on the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 2019Credit: Rolling Stone

Why are tattoos expensive?

Tattooists are professionals and must register their businesses with the local council and comply with strict health and safety and hygiene rules.

As a result, tattooists usually own or rent a studio and are subject to the same taxes as other businesses.

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According to a study, the average salary of a tattooist is around £43,000 putting them in the same pay scale as middle-managers.

Furthermore, tattooists are artists and customers are paying for their time and creations which will last a lifetime.

Removing tattoos can prove much more expensive than having them, with private clinics charging up to £800 per session to have them zapped off with lasers.

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