For my first 6 hour sitting, I had a $550 price tag on what he’d done. I tipped him $70 cause that’s all the cash I had left.
When I finished my tattoo, I was back home (other side of the country) I had a 3 hour sitting that was only $200. I feel like he under charged me for the work, and I had him draw up a small simple piece for my wife so I tossed him a $100.
My opinion is if the artist was cool, it was a good experience and you had fun (and can afford it,) throw them a tip. If the artist is a jerk and it was a crappy experience you probably shouldn’t have been getting tattooed there in the first place.
So I have had 2 sittings for my sleeve, and have at least another 2-3 left to go..I have left a fair amount as a tip after each session…after reading all this it seems like it’s not really the norm, but I feel when I’m getting awesome work done and love every second of it, tipping comes natural…I dunno…I almost feel as if I shouldn’t tip so much anymore…
…..In May I will be sitting down for my 1st session of a 3/4 sleeve; in all there will be four, five hour sessions. The artist is the owner of the shop, well known, does great work, and charges $175/hr. The sleeve is going to cost around $3500. By the way, this is my first tattoo….yeah, starting off big.
Is a tip expected for such an expensive piece? (honestly I would feel weird not giving a tip…I think I’m more concerned about the perception of giving a $100-200 tip opposed to tipping around 15-20%, but I would still like to know if a tip is expected)
Do shop owners get tipped less than their employees?
If you do tip, how much would you tip particularly on this piece?
when we went in for our memorial tats, we spent $1800 on tats and gave them $200 worth of tips. They seemed happy with it.
Ok, Clearly I am an over tipper. I’m paying close to 4K for my sleeve and I am so impressed with the way my artist handles everything that I give him 100 bucks each session. The way I look at it he is going to mark my body for life. The extra 100 bucks I spend per session will be forgotten about next year but if there is anything “extra” available I know, for a fact, I will get it. It also allows me the attention from him that I might not get otherwise. I had to change the time of an appointment- no problem. I call him with an idea in the middle of the week- he puts his current tat on hold to take my call. I know I over tip but he also goes out of the way to give me amazing art and I feel he earns extra money from me.
I understand the opposite point of view- why pay extra for the same work. As with any art/service, when the work goes beyond my expectation level I have zero problem saying thank you with some extra money.
Just my .02
GSouder: Your post made me smile, haha…cause my sleeve overall, is gonna cost me around 3500 bucks I’m guessing, and I have tipped 100 after each session as well. My artist is amazing, I know I am getting the upmost attention from her when I’m getting my ink done, I don’t worry that the work is gonna be okay, I know it’s gonna be amazing, and it’s gonna be what I want it to be, so I pay for that..on top of what I’m supposed to be paying anyways, she deserves it. Like you said, they are marking your body for life!
I have always tipped, when people dont tip or tip poorly i feel horrible.. i mean people work there ass off whether theyre a waitress at dennys or a tattoo artist. I tipped my artist 20 dollars for an 80 dollar piece on my wrist and im going to tip 100 on the last session of my half sleeve which will probably cost around 1000 after it is all done but he even gave me his cell phone number to get ahold of him because he only works at the tattoo shop on fridays and saturdays. I have brought him a lot of customers because people really like the work he did on my arm and wrist but i believe a tip is a nice gesture to tell them you are pleased with the work but a tip is never expected.
It’s very much a cultural thing. In the UK it’s not an expected thing… I got a bottle of JD and a large poster for my last tattooist to go in his new studio as he’d been eying it up for a while… but I wouldn’t have tipped in cash. However if I was in America I’d expect to tip.
As for the response earlier to someone for not tipping, I think that the response was a bit extreme. In the UK when a price is agreed, that’s the price something is. It’s not a bad personal attitude on it, it’s the normal thing over here. Tips are not a way of life.
In my job I’ve received two very large tips and a few smaller ones, we turn these down or put them in our charity box. It’s just not something done over here.
L
You must be logged in to create new topics.
