Tattoo business and its underground existence

Hey everybody,

the cliché of the tattoo businesses being a part of the gangster world seems sometimes far-fetched but in reality it is not.
In todays article I´m going to write about the dark side of the tattoo business.

Who of you has a tatoo and has received a bill for the service. Let me guess…No one?! How is it possible that such a wide-spread business is able to get away with such a “crime” and why are they doing it?
I had the honor to get a slight impression how such a business is working.

Tattoo artist enjoy a pretty comfortable life. A tattooer can earn up to a couple hundred thousands of euros per year but to be able to charge so much you need to be very good and well-known world-wide (ex. Kat von D, Louis Malloy or Mario Barth). The normal tattooer earns between 1000 euro and 5000 thousand euros per month. For somebody that does not pay any taxes that is a really good income.
Small pieces start at 50 euros and as bigger they get as more expensive they are. After a session you pay in cash but you won´t get a bill because there is no normal book-keeping. That means every dollar that is paid disappears in the pocket of the artist. If an artist works in a shop he normally gives 50% to the store and the other half is his earning.
But as we know the tax offices are steady checking on peoples finances and if everything is deducted right. If a controller shows up in a store to check how much the client has to pay the artists quickly react and only charge a really small amount. It sometimes happens that a customer leaves the store after getting a tattoo that is worth hundreds of euros by only paying for example 50 euros because this can´t be sued by the tax offices.

But if a tattoo artist keeps only around 50% of the money what does the store do with the rest? Are they saving it for harder times or is there something else they need the money for?

The first thing the store uses the money for are rent expenses and other expenses like insurance,etc..

Another cost are gangs! Those gangs blackmail these shops to pay protection money. As bigger the store is and as more commercial it as more they have to pay to keep trouble away. It is common that tattoo shops that refuse to pay are being demolished and the artists are being threatened by their life’s.
But after a store has paid its money they can be sure that they are safe and protected by these gangs. It is somehow like a second insurance.

Typical blackmailer are: bikers or mafia.
You might think that a life as a tattoo artist is because of that quiet difficult and dangerous but there are explicit rules that need to be respected and everything works out fine.

Be informed by getting informed

Mitchi Mitch

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