Going for a tattoo consultation tomorrow, don’t really have much of a design in mind but want to have a price to work around. Ideally I was made of money I’d have two full sleeves but alas I’m not. So what is the rough ballpark price for a sleeve tattoo. Obviously it depends on how long it takes, level of detail, colour vs black and white but realistically what am I looking at
14 comments
> Obviously it depends on how long it takes, level of detail, colour vs black and white
That, and the hourly rate of the artist. Heck, if you have massive arms it’ll take more time as well.
Surely the artist tomorrow can give you a rough estimation.
Around 2k apparently 😳
If its a full arm sleeve with an artist that does good realism, I’ve heard of people paying up to £1500
Depends how many sessions if takes. My tattooist charges £60 per hour but that’s actual inking, it doesn’t include pissing about with the stencil or having breaks etc. A full arm sleeve would take around 5/6 sessions. That’s “all day” sessions by the way. Do the math and it’s roughly £2k.
If you’re worried it’s going to be too expensive, SAVE. It’s worth it, it’s with you forever. If it’s cheap, you get what you pay for and you’ll wish you’d have saved.
All depends on the artist, the shop, style, speed etc. Personally I would expect to pay at least £100 an hour, my sleeve cost around £2000. Worth every penny.
Think mine was around £1500 for my half sleeve.
I went to a specific artist who I liked the work of though and had to wait around 9 months for an appointment. I imagine if your artist doesn’t even have a waiting list they’ll probably be a bit cheaper.
I would expect minimum of 1-2k depending on the tattooist
It’s not something you can pay for with “exposure” Its something that lasts a lifetime so needs to be done well, I would not be paying less than £50 per hour, and you’re looking at a good few days or weeks’ worth of work depending on what you are after.
Cheap isn’t good and good isn’t cheap.
When I’ve got my whole sleeve done it cost about £8000ish but it’s a proper good job I think if you went into your average tattoo place they’d charge you around 2000 ish
I have 2 full sleeve tattoos – one took 32 hours and the other just over 40, both cost in the region of £80 an hour, so 2.5k and 3k or thereabouts. But one of those was full colour and the other involved some cover ups. I know people who have had a full black and grey sleeve in 15 hours or so if it isn’t particularly intricate work.
I suppose the main setback is the permanent display of confirming to the fashion of the day.
Blows my mind that you want one without even having a design in mind.
I would say it would cost anywhere from £1k – £3k. All depending on how good the artist is (and how expensive), what type of design you want and how much work goes into it, and how many sessions you get it over too. Do you have some ideas in mind of what you want?
Forget the cash it’ll set you back, think about the salary you’ll forego etc.