How Do You Calculate Tattoo Shop Minimum Cost?
I see a lot of talk online about what the real minimum cost of tattoos “should” be. Some folks wonder why a small tattoo still has a price tag of $150 or more. The truth is, it’s not about being greedy , it’s about math, overhead, and the reality of running a business and covering operating expenses. As a client, you should know that the shop minimum doesn’t always mean just a tiny tattoo — if your design is simple and doesn’t take much extra time, you can often get more work for that minimum.
I put together a custom tattoo cost calculator based on averages here in San Diego. You can play with the numbers yourself (it’s right below in this post). I may have forgotten a few small items, but the beauty is that you can edit the costs to fit your own situation.
Minimum Tattoo Cost — Calculator
Adjust the numbers below to see how shop expenses affect the baseline price of every tattoo.
Fixed Costs (Monthly unless noted)
Operating Assumptions
Disposables (per tattoo)
Results
Monthly Overhead
Daily Overhead
Per-Tattoo Baseline
Break-Even Daily Revenue
Suggested Minimum (per tattoo)
Fixed Costs vs. Variables
Certain expenses don’t change much — rent, insurance, utilities, sharps disposal, permits. Those are fixed and can be figured out exactly. But there are several factors that swing your minimum tattoo price up or down:
How many artists are working in your shop
How many tattoos they do per day
How many days you’re open each week
That last one is the biggie,the more tattoos a shop does per day, the more those fixed costs get spread out. And honestly, the math gets pretty crazy. I’m no financial analyst, and this is just one angle I’m looking at to figure out a baseline minimum. Sure, when clients get larger tattoos they’re spending more, and the setup might cost a little extra, but it often evens out in the end.
How do you calculate your shop minimum? Is it just based on regional standards, or do you run the actual data you’ve got on hand?
A Couple Examples of calculating tattoo shop minimum cost
Let’s say your artists average two tattoos a day. That means every single setup — gloves, drapes, razors, cleaning supplies, is carrying a heavy share of the shop’s daily expenses.
Now imagine a high-volume shop cranking out 40 tattoos a day. Suddenly, the cost per tattoo drops dramatically, because the rent, insurance, and utilities are being divided across way more clients.
It’s the same story when you compare shops that focus on big sittings versus those doing lots of small walk-ins. The calculator doesn’t split those scenarios automatically, but you can see the effect by adjusting how many tattoos per day you enter — fewer for larger sittings, more for flash-style days.
What Surprised Me
When I ran the numbers for my own averages here in San Diego, I was a little shocked. There are plenty of times where the shop actually pays to tattoo a client once you factor in everything.
It makes you wonder: are things like Friday the 13th tattoos and cheap DIY tattoo kits hurting shops’ bottom line more than people realize?
These “fun” tattoos have their place in the culture, but when you crunch the numbers, the costs are eye-opening.
Try the Calculator
Here’s the interactive calculator I built. It’s based on San Diego shop averages, but you can edit the numbers to fit your own costs. Add in your rent, adjust the number of artists, or see how doing more (or fewer) tattoos per day changes your baseline.
Final Thoughts
Running a tattoo shop in San Diego — or anywhere, really — comes with real overhead. Every tattoo starts with a clean setup, fresh disposables, and a safe environment. That baseline has a cost, whether the tattoo is small or large.
So when you see that a shop’s minimum is $150 or $200, now you know it’s not pulled out of thin air. It’s the math of staying open, paying bills, and keeping tattooing safe and professional.
Remington Tattoo in North Park San Diego.