What a tattoo quote should include, field by field

A quote that says "4,000 MXN" and nothing else is not a quote. It is a loose figure that will produce three awkward conversations: when the client wants to add an element to the design and assumes it is included, when they find out it was two sessions and not one, and when they come back five months later expecting the same price.

All three are avoided by writing eight fields. This is not paperwork. It is the difference between arguing about what each of you remembers and reading a text together that was agreed in advance.

The eight fields

1. What is being tattooed. A description in one or two sentences, plus the agreed references. If there was a sketch, mention it.
2. Body area. It changes the time, the technique and sometimes who can do it.
3. Size in centimetres. Height by width, approximate. "Medium" is not a measurement.
4. Colour or black, and whether it includes shading, fill or line only.
5. Expected sessions and the length of each. With the word "expected" in front.
6. Design revisions included. How many, and up to what point.
7. Amount, currency and what it covers. If the design is charged separately, say so here.
8. Quote validity and deposit conditions.

Size and placement: why they travel together

Twelve centimetres on a forearm and twelve centimetres on the ribs are not the same job. The tolerance of the client changes, the pace you can work at changes, and so does the number of breaks. That is why size is always written next to the placement, and why a line such as "if we end up moving it to the shoulder, the quote is revised" saves an entire problem.

If the client is still torn between two areas, quote one and say explicitly that the other is quoted separately. A quote with two open options becomes, in practice, the cheaper of the two.

Sessions: the word to use is "expected"

On large pieces you cannot know in advance how many sessions it will take. The honest way to write it is this:

"Expected sessions: 2, of 4 hours each. If the work needs a third after the second one, it is quoted separately at the agreed hourly rate and decided with you before it is booked."

That protects both sides. The client, because no surprise invoice is coming. The studio, because it is not trapped in a closed price for a piece that has grown.

Design revisions: put a number on it

This is the field that saves the most unbilled hours. Without a number, revisions are infinite by definition.

"Includes two rounds of changes to the sketch, up to 5 days before the session. Beyond that, or beyond the third round, it is treated as additional design work."

Validity

Thirty days is a reasonable period and an easy one to defend. The full sentence matters: the point is not to apply pressure but to make clear that a price calculated today cannot hold indefinitely. "This quote is valid for 30 days from the date it was sent. After that we review it, usually with no change." A validity period is a studio decision, not a legal requirement.

A fictional example

The details and the amount below are invented to show the format. They are not a guide rate, not an average of the Mexican market, and not a reference for what you should charge. Your price comes out of your time, your costs and your work.

Quote · Example Studio · 12 October 2026

• Client: name and contact.
• Artist: name.
• Work: botanical illustration in black and grey, based on the sketch sent on 10 October.
• Placement: inner right forearm.
• Approximate size: 16 × 8 cm.
• Expected sessions: 1 session of 3 hours.
• Design revisions included: 2 rounds, up to 5 days before the session.
• Amount: 4,200 MXN, includes design and materials.
• Deposit to hold the date: 1,000 MXN, deducted from the total on the day of the session.
• Validity: 30 days from today.
• Date changes: with 72 hours notice or more, the deposit carries over to the new date.

How you send it and where it lives

Send the quote as text or a PDF, not as a voice note and not as a loose message inside a forty-message thread. Ask for explicit written acceptance, even if it is just "agreed". And keep a copy outside the chat, because social media conversations get archived, get lost, and sometimes disappear with the account.

Where a quote lives

You write the document yourself, in your own format, and it works the same in a word processor as inside a tool. None of the eight fields depends on the software.

What is worth solving, whatever you use, is three things: that the quote stays attached to the job rather than loose in a folder, that you can find it two months later by searching the client name, and that a copy exists outside the chat you sent it in.

If you ever compare products for this, the specific question is whether you can issue a quote with a validity period and pull it back up attached to the appointment when the client returns. Plenty of products handle appointments but not commissions, and the difference shows up exactly here.

Related: how to separate enquiry, design, quote and session, how to explain a deposit before you charge it, and, to see what the client is reading, how a tattoo quote looks from the other side.