The first wife and I are hooked on this show (but not tattoos) and wonder why price is never mentioned. Anyone know what tattoos cost, or whether this shop charges more than others? Do “characters” getting tattoos get paid to be on the show, receive a discount, or sign a waiver after-the-fact a’la Taxicab Confessions.
Is anyone else wanting to know more about the story behind the story?
Everyone who appears on the show pays full price for their tattoo (with the exception of the little old lady the other week, and probably a “special guest” or two). If you were to walk into the shop during a non-taping day, you would find that there is a minimum fee of $200- regardless of how small the design and whether you get it done by one of the show artists or someone else who works in the shop (there are several other artists who work there, which basically negates Ami’s whole “we’re SO SWAMPED WITH WORK!” bull). They average about 200-300 an hour for anything they do, so figure that an average tat takes 2 hours and go from there.
Whether you think their prices are competative or not depends on how caught up you are in the “star power” of the artists. I would pay out my ass for a Chris Garver tattoo, but I have yet to see any of the others do something I would pay their prices for… Kat is super-talented, yes, but is that worth $300 an hour? The crossover episode with American Choppers raised a bunch of questions along these lines- there are likely any number of very talented artists in the AC area, any one of whom could have done as well (or better) than what Nunez and Ami did.
Garver and Kat I’d pay that much for. The others, while good, are not GREAT, and not worth my going to a city with much higher prices than here in Chicago. Here, a small flash tat can go as low as $30. Any sort of custom work will start around $60 for a small piece, and you can generally assume $60-$100 per hour for larger work. There may be a few superstar artists I don’t know about charging more here, but I’m not familiar with them. My numbers are based on my ink and those of people I know - I’m not active in the subculture, but I have a few personal pieces.
My real problem with them is the lack of professionalism. I started getting fed up when designs weren’t ready when promised, or when they’d be hurredly scribbling something up as their client walked in the door. Dude! You promised it three days ago, and you’ve been dicking around the shop instead of drawing! Get to work! I’m also surprised at how much of their work is simply traced. Garver seems like the only one who can actually draw something original. I mean, it’s nice to be able to trace elements and synthesize them into a nice design (and I think Nunez actually has a real gift with layout and proportion - his New York backpiece was damn fine, and got so much STUFF in there without looking weird), but when I want a butterfly, I want a unique butterfly drawn by an artist for me, not a traced one from a nature book. If I wanted the same damn butterfly as everyone else, I’d get flash!
OTOH, I have sort of a crush on Ami, and might pay him $200 to go to coffee with me. 
Oh, wait. Miami. *Iced *coffee.