1 - 1.5 year unpaid apprenticeship and/or 2k-3k if you like getting assfucked by 'tat schools' and predatory shop owners that run apprentice mills as a secondary income
300-500$ power supply, 120 pedal, 1000-1.5k for machine/kit, 12$ per ink with 20 bottles on a 2 year rotation, 1k/yr for bags/material/PPE/transfer paper, 600-1k/yr liability insurance, LLC fee, 120-200/yr licensing, 150-500/yr accounting, 75-100 for yearly BBP/CPR, 1-2k needles (2$ per), shop percentage is anywhere from 60%-30% your generated income yearly
45 hr x 50 w x 2-3 yr to get to the point where you can tattoo anywhere or anything and have intrinsic knowledge and tactile appreciation of how to apply color, shading, line weight with zero extra trauma
bottom 70% are people having to tattoo on couches/look for clients on FB/using cheap material and supply/turning out bammer tats because they have mental illness/a drug problem, using cheap Chinese-manufactured machines and needles that literally make it impossible to do good tattoos
Legislators pushing the idea of 'tat school' puppy mills as part of mandatory process in certain states
Price gouging as all the major manufacturers and distributors get bought by holding companies/the Chinese
All 'successful' sponsored artists required to edit pictures to brand 'standard', ie. selling out for corporate piggy bucks, where the best thing you can do for your career is tattoo someone famous or price yourself into the luxury market (ie. the faggot that tattooed david beckham going 500-600/hr, guys charging 40k for a single sleeve)
Highest number of scratchers/unlicensed working ever, with 50k mouthbreathers tatting out of basements to dodge licensing/shop constraints, diluting the market and simultaneously fucking the market when people get turned off from tattoos by getting mangled by cretins
Highest number of shops some with 10-15 artists, with 10-50 shops in any major metro area
Highest number of private studios operating to date
Convention culture up in flames because its no longer economically feasible to travel/tattoo fulltime unless you're 250+/hr (you will never be worth that much)
150/hr standard to 'get by' where monkeys with 2 yrs experience cry and shit their pants that they can only book 1-2 tats a week at prices our largest target market (bammer tat chicks/poors) can no longer afford
Photoshop/Procreate proficiency is not an option
Don't forget you have zero market competitiveness if you got the idea that it's just 'print and stick'
Going up against people who have been in the industry for 10-20 years
consider taking up crochet instead
