How Much Should You Pay For A Tattoo?

The average American woman spends about $125,000 on clothing in her lifetime, and while fashion comes and goes, a tattoo is a permanent style piece. As Sailor Jerry said: “Good work ain’t cheap. Cheap work ain’t good.”

- Paddy Vipond 

If we were speaking of any other topic, the relationship between cost, permanence and visibility would be seen as positive. But when we speak of tattoos, all of these, for some reason, become lines of attack.

When we discuss cars, jewelery or technology, the price is often seen as a sign of quality, but this attitude is ignored when we talk about tattoos. The ink that we choose to put on—or should that be put under—our skin is dismissed or even criticised as a waste of money. People I speak to are shocked when I tell them how much money I have spent on this body modification—around the $5,000 mark currently—but in the same conversation they are more than happy to announce how much they spent on Friday night in a club, or on Saturday afternoon at the shops.

Yes, tattoos are expensive, but as with anything else in this world, you get what you pay for. A poorly designed smudge could be as little as $25, but when you are going to be carrying it around with you for the rest of your life, why not pay a bit more to ensure quality?

It is this combination of price and permanence that gives tattoos their true value.

My $5,000 worth of ink is roughly a decade in the making, meaning that, on average, I am spending $500 a year on tattoos. Though they may not be to everyone’s taste, I doubt anyone could criticize someone for spending that much money on something they love over the course of 12 months. Whether you call it art or a hobby or even an addiction (in the best possible sense of the word), $500 a year—all things considered—is a reasonable price to pay.