Tattoo Artist Salary

The average salary for a Tattoo Artist in the UK is:

£23,400

Job profile for a Tattoo Artist

As a tattoo artist you need many skills such as customer service, artistic talent, an understanding of medical hygiene and specific knowledge of how to use and maintain all tattooing equipment. At the present time there are no official qualifications for tattooing and the majority of artists learn via an unpaid apprenticeship, closely watching a professional artist while they tattoo clients, setting up tattoo machines, practicing drawings, engaging with customers and of course making plenty of tea and coffee! Although an apprenticeship is the traditional way to become a tattoo artist there are a few studios and colleges that run courses to give you a basic understanding of how everything works. Doing a course may give you the basic knowledge but to be ready to tattoo clients for money you will need to put in a lot of hours of practice. Some people are self taught and there is plenty of material out there for this to be a viable option but still requires many hours of practice. The main basis of being a tattoo artist is being a person who's art work satisfies the customers and a person who also makes the journey of getting a tattoo a pleasant and enjoyable experience. A lot of tattoo studios make the bulk of their income via walk in clients who generally want something simple or what's known as flash art (drawing from other artists that can be traced and copied by the tattooist), some artists will only do custom work by appoinment rather than walk ins, although to be able to do custom only work and advise customers of other artists should you be uncomfortable with what the customer wants is said to be a luxury that only the best tattoo artists can afford. A tattoo artist should be an honest and friendly people person with artistic knowledge and talent who's un-dying passion for art and pushing the limits of art is evident. Deffinately a career you do for the love of it, not just as an income.

- Tattoo Artist Job Profile

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Tattoo Artist Salary Comparison

In 2008, the average salary for this job was £16,000.

The average salary in 2009 was £20,000, based on 1 respondents (a difference of 25% from the 2008 figure.

The average salary in 2010 was £15,600, based on 1 respondents (a difference of -28% from the 2009 figure.

The average salary in 2011 was £39,000, based on 1 respondents (a difference of 150% from the 2010 figure.

The average salary in 2012 was £19,000, based on 1 respondents (a difference of -51% from the 2011 figure.

The median salary for a Tattoo Artist based on all salary survey responses is: £17,300

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About the Salary Survey Data in this survey is based on over 368,000 individual salary records. The date period for which job information was gathered varies, but is usually between 2008 - 2012. For precise date related information, custom reports may be ordered with greater granularity. Working 8 hours a day, 250 days of the year, the data suggests the hourly rate for Tattoo Artist is £11.7.


Tattoo Artist Salary By UK Region

These figures use non-job specific statistical weighting from our salary data pool and also include for comparison the salaries for a Tattoo Artist job in US Dollars based on a recent exchante rate (last rate update 02/05/2013 with a pound to dollar exchange rate 1.56) for comparisons for our international visitors
Salary US Dollars Region
£20592 $32123.52 North West
£25507 $39790.92 London
£18720 $29203.2 Yorkshire and North East
£20358 $31758.48 South West
£24102 $37599.12 South East
£19890 $31028.4 Scotland
£21060 $32853.6 Northern Ireland
£19656 $30663.36 Wales
£21762 $33948.72 Midlands
£19422 $30298.32 East of England

With regard to age and impact on salary for a Tattoo Artist, a statistical average weighting (that is based on how salary varies by age and not for a specific job which may vary considerably) suggests these figures: £17,550 for a worker in their 20s, £22,932 (30s), £27,144 (40s) and £27,144 (50s).
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Information on using the salary data and granularity
The average salary figure above for a Tattoo Artist is considered to not necessarily be representative across the whole UK market as it is based on less than five respondents with this job title.

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