DIY tattoo artists and “unscrupulous” studio owners have been accused of “doubling” the number of UK ink parlors in a decade, but experts say they are “running out of skin to get inked”. “There is a risk,” he warns.
In 2014, there were 1,637 tattoo parlors in the country, but statistics show the number jumped to 3,394 last year, a 107% jump.
But in 2024, the rapid expansion will stop and begin to reverse, with numbers starting to decline for the first time in a decade, according to BoldData research.
John Foster, general secretary of the British Tattoo Artists Federation (BTAF), said part of the boom was due to “unscrupulous” non-tattoo artists trying to make money by taking in and training “naive” beginners. He blames this on the rapid increase in artists opening studios.
They say the availability of cheap equipment and online training has flooded the industry with DIY tattoo artists, leaving studios overstaffed.
They warn that the decline in the number of studios is a warning that the market is “saturated” and is full of artists who realize they don't have enough work and are quickly leaving the industry.
John said: “In my opinion, a lot of studios were opened by people who weren't tattoo artists because they decided, sometimes incorrectly, that there was going to be a lot of money to be made.
“They opened stores and overstaffed them with industry newcomers who thought they could easily obtain knowledge and inferior equipment from the Internet.
“Also, unscrupulous tattoo artists charge huge sums of money to teach naive people.
“All of this completely saturated the industry, leaving so many artists working in overstaffed studios unable to make a living or working without paying taxes.
“Tattoo studios and artists have reached a saturation point and are now stalling or declining to a plateau.
“It’s not good for the industry when a lot of new artists come in and quickly disappear because there’s no long-term experience built.”
London has the highest number of studios at a whopping 289, followed by Manchester and Birmingham with 157 and 58 respectively.
The UK ranks third in the world rankings, behind Germany and the US, and is home to 8% of all studios in the world.
For more information about the study, visit https://bolddata.nl/en/companies/uk/tattoo-studios/.