Tattoo artists create permanent art that requires talent, focus, and creativity. This work comes with many rules, health regulations, and safety procedures. Occupational licensing, through various state boards, imposes these requirements that go beyond just artistic skills. The Knee Regulatory Research Center this past December released the 2025 Occupational Licensing Snapshot. This snapshot provided updated information on numerous professions, including tattoo artists. This data was collected directly from state statues, regulations, and administrative code from health departments or other licensing agencies.
I will compare the different licensing requirements for becoming and staying a licensed tattoo artist. A few of these requirements include the initial or application fee, experience and training, and number of exams that must be completed prior to licensing, and the renewal fee. This data can be used to understand what states currently require this license and how that barrier to entry could impact those who want to practice as a tattoo artist.
The Requirements
The initial fee is the fee an aspiring artist must pay alongside the application for an artist license. Looking at Figure 1, only 24 states require a tattoo artist license. These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. These fees range from $25 in Alabama to $420 in Minnesota. A $25 to $420 gap between Alabama and Minnesota is a huge burden for many individuals in states that are very close in distance. This large gap comes with the same responsibilities and precautions a tattoo artist must have and complete no matter the cost. It can often feel like one just chooses their passion and creativity or the amount they want to pay in their state to have an artist’s license.
Figure 1:
Experience and training are a small, but mighty part in becoming and holding a tattoo artist license. This training is usually accompanied by the application and initial fee. Not all 24 states that require and regulate a tattoo artist license have an experience requirement, but the mandated training is very consistent across states. A bloodborne pathogen, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and first aid training are required by all 24 states to obtain an artist license. A certificate in states like Washington and Oklahoma are equivalent to Arkansas’s minimum 6 months of training and to Alaska's 1,000 hours of training through the American Heart Association. All these training and hours are required for an aspiring artist to be eligible for a license.
Exams required for a license go along with the training and certificates in the process of becoming a licensed tattoo artist. As Figure 2 shows, all 24 states that regulate a tattoo artist license do not have the same exam requirements. Arkansas and New Mexico require two exams, which include the state and department jurisprudence exam and the National Tattoo and Piercing Theory Exam. Whereas Alaska, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia only require one exam for a tattoo artist to complete and pass before achieving a license. This exam is the jurisprudence or state exam administered by the state board, health department or agency of the corresponding state.
Figure 2:
All the hard work is not completed once an individual has completed and passed all exams, training, and paid the initial licensing and application fee. Minimum age, good moral character, and an apprenticeship must be completed and met before a license is given to a prospective candidate. Although not all these requirements are required by all 24 states that regulate a tattoo artist license. Current license holders are also required to renew their license and pay renewal fees, normally after every two years. As shown, in Figure 3, renewal fees range from a wide gap of $15 to $550. This means that artists in Washington are paying $550 to continue doing the exact same occupation as tattoo artists in Hawaii who are paying $15. This range is very similar to the gap between initial fees of $25 to $420. These fees represent the obligation beyond all licensure requirements and are needed to continue working as a licensed tattoo artist.
Figure 3:
The licensing requirements for becoming a tattoo artist can be very time consuming and encompass many regulatory barriers. From making sure you are at least the minimum age to finding apprenticeships and taking exams, the process of becoming a licensed tattoo artist is challenging, but only in the 24 states that regulate the profession. This does not mean that the remaining states do not have tattoo artists that are not licensed, but rather the state does not oversee this license, and it could be done locally. The range of fees and experience greatly deepens where an artist wants to showcase their creative abilities. This is consistent among all 96 professions in the Occupational Licensing Snapshot.