Who Are The Best Tattoo Artists In The Us?
Tattoo artists in the United States
- Nik Lucas. USA. black&grey color trash polka realism abstract watercolor. (50)
- Arlo DiCristina. USA. color black&grey realism. (176)
- Sergey Shanko. USA. color authors style portrait realism. (51)
- Steve Butcher. USA. color portrait realism. (46)
Contents
Which state has the best tattoo artist?
Who is the best tattooist in the world?
Who is most famous tattoo artist?
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Who is the most talented tattoo artist?
What city has the best tattoos?
What state is known for tattoos?
The Top Tattoo-Friendly Cities – Tattoo Shops Per Capita – The list is based on how many tattoo shops per capita are located in the city. The number one city is Miami Beach, Florida , with 24 tattoo shops per 100,000 people. Richmond, Virginia, is the most surprising on the list, with 14 tattoo shops per capita in Richmond.
How much does Kat Von D charge per hour?
Bonus – Most Expensive “Tattoo” That Isn’t a Tattoo At All – Minky Van der Wurtzen is a South African model who has a “tattoo,” worth over nine hundred thousand dollars. Sadly it’s not actually a tattoo. Instead, she has 612 Shimansky Ideal Cut diamonds implanted in her skin.
How much do you tip a tattoo artist?
How Much to Tip – If you decide to tip, the next step is to calculate exactly how much to add to the final tattoo price. The general consensus in the tattoo community is that 20 percent is the typical amount to tip — just like at a restaurant or a hair salon.
- However, consider this number a baseline, as some tattoos require more or less work than others;
- Just like there is no one tattoo experience or price, there’s no one-size-fits-all tipping option;
- “The more you spend on the tattoo, the more you should tip, as they are putting more work into the piece,” says Fiore;
Weed, however, notes that there is one thing that every tattoo experience needs to have to warrant a tip: It needs to be great. Your artist is putting time into the behind-the-scenes of your tattoo, but it’s also their responsibility to ensure you’re comfortable and having a good time while it’s happening.
What country is best for tattoos?
How much do the best tattoo artists charge per hour?
Tattoo Cost Per Hour – Tattoo artists typically charge $75 to $250 per hour , with hourly rates averaging $120 to $150 depending on their skill level, the complexity of the tattoo, and how long of a waiting list they have. 
| Artist & Experience | Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| Beginner (1-3 yrs) | $80 – $120 |
| Established Artist (5-10 yrs) | $120 – $180 |
| Experienced Artist (10+ yrs) | $150 – $250 |
| Famous Artist | $200 – $500 |
For example, Floating Lotus Tattoo Studio in Portland has a flat rate of $140 per hour , with 12 years’ experience. Clay Tattoos in Austin, Texas, has a flat rate of $4 per minute. Good Tattoos Aren’t Cheap and Cheap Tattoos Aren’t Good. If you want it fast or cheap, it is almost definitely not going to be high quality. Most artists work at different speeds. As a general rule of thumb, a more seasoned and talented artist with five or more years of professional experience could be faster than a less experienced artist.
How do you know if a tattoo artist is good?
Quora 
A tattoo artist works on a tattoo based on an image of Albert Einstein on March 17, 2014 in London. Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images This question originally appeared on Quora , the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter , Facebook , and Google Plus.
Answer by Kevin “Jack” Allaire , licensed freelance tattoo artist: This is easy and difficult at the same time. The first thing you have to do is look through the portfolio of the artist. As with a lot of things, a person’s previous work speaks volumes.
Make sure there is a large variety of different work in the portfolio: color, black and gray, traditional, realism. If a portfolio is filled with pieces of flash art (small, common, money-making pieces picked from off the wall), I would call that person a tattooist and not a tattoo artist.
Original designs of great detail are a sure sign of an artist who does tattoos as his medium of choice. And as silly as it sounds, price of the artist determines a lot. The old adage of you get what you pay for generally rings true.
You pay for quality. A typical price of an average artist is $75 to $100 an hour. Your better artists are generally two to three times that at a minimum. Ask all the questions you want to! Good tattoo artists love to answer questions and provide comfort to their clients, from what kind of machines they use to what kind of ink they use to how long they’ve been at it and what they have a preference for doing.
- The look and presentation of the shop itself speaks volumes about the artists in the shop;
- You won’t find a great tattoo artist in a dingy, dirty shop;
- Remember, this is technically a minor medical procedure, so run from a dimly lit, cramped, and dingy shop;
But the No. 1 rule of thumb is to look at an artist’s work—all of it! Look at the lines closely. Do they look nice and thin and clean and crisp? Do they look like they have bled, like holding a marker on paper too long? Does the skin look beat-up and red and bleeding? Look at the detail in the pieces in the artist’s portfolio.
- Minute details are the difference between someone who wants to get you in and out of the seat for money and someone whose focus is solely making a great tattoo;
- Look for saturation and boldness of colors;
Packing solid color into skin is difficult if inexperienced, and most will beat up the skin, and you will see blood and areas of light color. If you look through a portfolio and see a lot of the same simple, small pieces you would find on the wall, the person is most likely a tracer and not an artist.
- You wouldn’t trust a doctor to operate on you if he’s only ever treated colds, right? Variety and difficulty of the pieces in the portfolio truly speaks for itself;
- Also, thanks to the Internet, you can search just about anyone and find reviews for him or her;
Listen to what people say! These are permanent pieces on your body, and people won’t lie about their experiences. If an artist is uncomfortable with any of these things, gets annoyed, or has issues with anything you ask (don’t demand though), walk away.
Also ask him if he does conventions, which ones, if he’s worked at other shops. Then look it all up. Don’t make spur-of-the-moment decisions. Do your research. Again, it’s permanent. But don’t get me wrong, some artists have specialties they prefer to do.
Some love portraits. Some love photorealism. Some love traditional. The key is: Is it original work, or is it stuff people come into the shop and point to the wall and say, “That one”? If you encounter an artist that has a specialized niche, he or she will be well-known for it.
Generally, only established artists have the ability to specialize in one genre of work, and you will be able to tell from the quality of the work presented to you. If all else fails, come to Quora and ask about a specific artist.
Some top artists are Andy Engel, Kirk Alley, Mario Barth, Nikko Hurtado, Paul Booth, and Mike Devries. Also go to Sullen Clothing , Intenze , and Eternal Ink to look at the teams of artists they support. These are industry leaders that “sponsor” the best of the best, and you will get an idea for what truly great tattoo artist work looks like. More questions on Quora :
- Body Art : What do I need to consider before getting a tattoo?
- Tattoo Artist : What is the typical working arrangement between a tattoo artist and a tattoo shop?
- Tattooing : What are some tips from tattoo artists about getting a custom tattoo?
How much does Paul Booth charge?
The highest-paid tattoo artist is a former biochemist – Even higher on the pay scale is tattoo artist Paul Booth who charges $300 or more an hour (via Money Inc. ) Booth is known for his dark and gothic pieces in the world of rock and prefers to develop clients’ rough ideas of what they want with his own interpretations (per Paul Booth Art ).
And with an hourly rate like his, we’re guessing clients are pretty satisfied with the final product. Topping our list (and many others) of the most expensive tattoo artist you can book is ink master Scott Campbell.
His exorbitant fee of $2,000 for the first hour, plus $200 for every additional hour has us begging to know more about his resume (via Money Inc. You would likely never guess, but Campbell is a former biochemist who worked at the University of Texas. After abandoning his lab coat, he moved to the west coast to begin his now insanely successful career as a tattoo artist.
- Today, Campbell has set up his own shop in Brooklyn and has quite the star-studded client list, including Marc Jacobs, Josh Hartnett, and the late Heath Ledger (via Scott Campbell Studio );
- So there you have it;
The richest tattoo artists are certainly showing that ink can come at a price. Though seeing as they have years of experience and epic reputations, we’re guessing their fees will only increase in the future..
What tattoo ink is best?
How do you pick a tattoo artist?
Has someone you know worked with good tattoo artists? – 
The easiest and possibly best place to start your search for a tattoo artist is to ask a friend or relative with great ink for a recommendation. Chances are, if you love the art on their skin, they’ll be happy to give you advice about finding an artist you love. This is particularly true if the work they got from their artist is the kind of work you are looking for. And seeing an artist’s healed work in person is even better than seeing pictures of it.
Where do tattoo artists make the most money?
How much can good tattoo artists make?
Getty Images/iStockphoto Job: Tattoo artist Role : The responsibilities of a tattoo artist begin long before they pick up a needle, and end long after they dispose of it at the end of the day. While the actual application of tattoos is a vital component of the job, so is consulting with clients, sterilizing equipment, setup, cleanup and homework. “Most artists will draw at home. I’m drawing anywhere from an hour to five hours a night,” said Mark Prata, a tattoo artist and the owner of Toronto Ink Tattoo and Laser.
“Right now, I’m doing a Mayan Aztec half-sleeve on a guy, which is not in my realm. I know nothing about Aztec culture, so I’m actually going home and researching it. ” Salary : The salary of tattoo artists used to be heavily dependent on their location, but Mr.
Prata says that the Internet has levelled the playing field for artists working outside of densely populated regions. Artists today often display their work online, which can be an effective way to encourage people living in other regions to come to them.
“I just had a client two days ago who flew in from Vancouver because he saw me on Instagram and said ‘I need this guy to tattoo me,” said Mr. Prata, adding that if he found out he had fans in Calgary, for example, he could spend a week working from a tattoo shop in that city as well.
With the Internet providing a marketing platform for local artists, salaries are now dependent on skill, reputation and social media popularity. Mr. Prata says that tattoo artists typically operate as independent contractors as opposed to salaried employees, with shop owners paying them between 40 and 60 per cent commission on their overall sales.
He says that most tattoo artists earn between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, while renowned artists can easily earn well above $100,000 annually. Education: There is no formal licensing or educational standard for tattoo artists in Canada.
Since the industry is built on reputation and liability, however, reputable shop owners won’t allow amateurs to operate in their establishment. While there are crash courses and training programs available across the country, many in the industry consider them expensive and often invaluable.
“There are tattoo schools that exist, but they charge something like $8,000 for a couple of weeks and really don’t teach you anything. They’re a bit of a cash grab,” said Michael Longo, a tattoo artists at Artworxx Tattoo & Piercing in Etobicoke.
“If someone says they trained at a tattoo school, people in the industry really look down on it, because they think that person got scammed and probably learned nothing. ” Mr. Prata agrees, calling such institutions “a big waste of money. ” Instead, both he and Mr.
Longo launched their careers by working as informal apprentices, which has become the unofficial standard in the industry. Mr. Prata explains that apprenticeships are often unpaid, and many apprentices leave before the end of their training.
Depending on their skill level, most spend a minimum of six months helping with bookings and consultations, setup and cleanup before they’re given an opportunity to practise with a needle, but only on themselves, close friends and pigskins at first. “It’s about eight months before they touch a client, and when they start working on clients, it’s very simple tattoos,” he said.
“They’ll do that for another six months, so it’s a year and a half before they really do anything half-decent. ” Job prospects: Career opportunities for tattoo artists will depend on their skills and level of experience.
While those who have spent less than five years in the industry may struggle to find work, those who have built a reputation can take their talents anywhere in the world. “People have really gone into niches and developed styles, so if you’re bringing something to the table, you can find a job anywhere, no problem,” Mr.
Prata says. “If you’re a good artist, or you offer something unique, it’s very easy. You can go and work all over the world. ” Challenges: Since tattoo artists work as independent contractors, they rarely have the luxury of employee benefits and a consistent salary.
While experienced tattoo artists are able to earn a decent living, beginners often work for years to establish a client base. Why they do it: Given that it is a difficult field to break into, those who put in the time to become tattoo artists are often very passionate about their career.
Furthermore, while pay is far from steady, it is still among the most financially secure professions for visual artists. “I can get paid to draw, and I can do something that’s rewarding for me,” Mr. Longo said.
“You get people who come in who want a memorial tattoo for a family member that passed away and they want to get something elaborate that symbolizes their family member. That, to me, is some of the most meaningful art you can do. ” Misconceptions: Both Mr.
Longo and Mr. Prata say many people wrongly believe that most of their customers fall into two categories: bikers and punks. “The clients that we get, they’re just the same people you’d meet at a mall; they’re regular people, the nurse or the construction worker or the university student.
You don’t get a client base that’s particularly weird or scary,” Mr. Longo said. “That old-school mentality is still around, but tattoos are so popular now,” Mr. Prata added. “It still has that stigma, and I think tattoos will have that for a long time. ” Give us the scoop: Are you a tattoo artist? Write a note in the comments area of this story or e-mail your comment to careerquestion@globeandmail.
Are tattoos in high demand?
“The pandemic has had a great deal of impact on everybody. It’s made a lot of people try not to take life so seriously—so they’ve decided to do something impulsively that they maybe wouldn’t even have thought about doing before. ” That’s how Nahuel Hilal, the owner and founder of Iris Tattoo in Miami, says he views the spike in business at his shop over the past year.
Despite shutting down for over two months at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring—and then reopening at 50% percent capacity for the rest of the year—Hilal says that Iris still met its projected revenue for 2020.
This year, the studio is on pace to double that amount. Iris isn’t alone in seeing a boom in tattoo demand since the pandemic began. In the wake of a long stretch of time where a combination of shop closures and concerns over contracting COVID-19 kept many from getting inked, the lifting of coronavirus restrictions has resulted in a rush on tattoos.
According to IBIS World analysts, the $1. 4 billion tattoo artist industry is expected to increase its market size by 23. 2% in 2021—a faster growth rate than that of the consumer goods and services sector as a whole.
Amid the ongoing tattoo boom, Hilal tells TIME that the pandemic seems to have lowered inhibitions surrounding tattoos. “[It motivated] a lot of people to put something on their bodies that lasts forever,” he says. “There’s a lot of meaning behind things that people were maybe leaving for later in life [before the pandemic].
” A tattoo artist at Atelier Eva Courtesy Atticus Radley Clients at Iris Tattoo in Miami Courtesy Iris Tattoo The current success of the tattoo business stands in marked contrast to the pandemic rebound struggles of some other consumer-driven industries, like movie theaters and restaurants.
Although the movie business is mounting a slow revival now that theaters are back open, Variety reported in July that the 2021 box office is still down 81% from pre-pandemic times. Similarly, the pandemic has pummeled the restaurant business. A report from the National Restaurant Association found that over the past year 90,000 establishments have permanently, or long-term, closed.
As business returned to pre-pandemic levels, the Delta variant brought more challenges , all the while restaurants are struggling to find and retain enough employees to handle a full house. At Three Kings Tattoo , which has locations in New York City, Long Island, Los Angeles, North Carolina and London, owner Matthew Marcus says that business is “booming.
” “There’s definitely been a huge increase in people getting tattooed,” he tells TIME. “It’s to the point where [artists] are getting overworked. And it’s not just us. I’ve talked to shop owners and other tattooers all across the country, and even the world.
- ” Having opened Three Kings in 2008, Marcus says the current tattoo boom reminds him of how business took off amid the Great Recession;
- “The first interview we ever did was about opening up in the middle of the worst economic collapse [since the Great Depression],” he says;
“This has felt very similar to that. ” Marcus attributes the surge in tattoo demand during these periods of crisis to people’s increased “YOLO mentality” and desire to do something for themselves in a time when not as many options for “instant gratification” have been available.
“Tattoo shops were one of the only businesses open when most things were closed in the past year. So, to me, this is people substituting [getting a tattoo] for the things they would normally do to make themselves feel good—from the small stuff, like going to the movies or a bookstore or bowling, to the larger things like taking road trips and going on vacation.
All of that was taken away. ” 
Clients and tattoo artists at Three Kings Tattoo Courtesy Three Kings Tattoo But the surge in tattoo demand hasn’t come without its challenges. No stranger to gloves and disinfectants, the tattoo industry was more prepared than most to implement COVID-19 health protocols. However Marcus says that shortages of crucial safety supplies—and the subsequent increased prices of those supplies—were definitely noticeable.
- “We’re finally just seeing supplies come back,” he says;
- “But there was a huge shortage for a while so everybody was kind of just going day to day, week to week;
- And the companies we buy from have just been price gouging like crazy, which is naturally what happens when there’s a shortage;
But there’s a supply shortage in almost every sector of society, so it was no surprise that it hit ours as well. ” Nonetheless, the tattoo industry appears to be buoyed by the nature of the service it provides. At a time when many people are experiencing hardship, loneliness and loss, getting tattooed seems to be providing some solace.
- Since opening Atelier Eva in Brooklyn in November 2020, husband and wife co-founders Peter Jenkins and Eva Karabudak say that clients have been leaning into the zen aspects of the tattoo process;
- “[Appointments] used to be more stressful and now they’re more chill,” says Karabudak, who previously worked as an artist at New York’s Bang Bang Tattoo;
“Some people have even been falling asleep. ” For some, getting tattooed even doubles as a form of therapy. “Tattooing is a very therapeutic experience,” Marcus says. “It’s an exchange of energy. ” In some ways, with friends and family no longer allowed to join customers at many studios, the pandemic has led to an even more intimate tattooing experience. 
A tattoo artist at Iris Courtesy Iris Tattoo “Tattooing is such a delicate balance between artists and client,” Marcus says, adding that it’s important for the person who’s getting tattooed to ultimately be making the decisions about how it’s going to look. “Sometimes having that third voice there is more problematic than not when somebody’s trying to make a decision for themselves. ” Even when state restrictions were lifted to the point that guests could accompany customers again, Nahuel says that Iris decided to maintain its new no-guest policy.
Not to mention sometimes an easier one for the tattoo artist. “It’s made life a lot easier for artists and it also makes the experience a lot more personal for the client,” he says. “When it’s just one person walking in and the artist is expecting them, it allows for a lot more focus on that person at that given time.
” With people frequently hoping to make up for time lost to the pandemic, Hilal says that many customers’ desire to get tattoos has been fueled by what they’ve experienced over the course of the past year and a half. “We had a client who’d been living abroad and she decided to move back to Miami from Europe as soon as they lifted the travel bans because her siblings and parents were there,” he says.
“[The pandemic] had made her realize that her career was not more important than her family. And all five of them, mom, dad and siblings, came [to the studio] together to get matching tattoos after that.
” Karabudak has also experienced requests of this nature. She says that one of her first clients at Atelier Eva had been holding off on getting a tattoo in memory of his late grandmother for several years before the pandemic hit. “People keep telling me, ‘I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,'” she says.
What are the most painful spots for a tattoo?
