D&D 5E So how much does a tattoo cost?

[The Glen]

In a play through the other day a player asked how much a tattoo would cost and nobody could agree. One, the player was a Mastiff Lupin so a tattoo would have been absolutely pointless, and second it had just never come up. This is a normal, every day tattoo complete with needle and ink. I've heard anything from a few coppers to several hundred gold for a simple design. Throwing it out to the peanut gallery for more opinions.

 

[Blue]

Price should vary with the skill of the tattooist, like art, but the base cost wouldn't be that high. A mule is 8GP, and I'd put that well above the low-end cost of a tattoo. A lb of copper is 5SP, a goat is 1GP. I'd probably put low-end in that range. In a larger town, a 1GP cost and a few people per day would put a tattooist at a comfortable to wealthy lifestyle, so I can't picture it going for more.

That said, GREAT tattoo artists probably cost 100s of gold for one of their larger, full color masterpieces.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, I’d say 1-10gp, unless it’s an exceptional, famous artist.


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[Ovinomancer]

Oh, the poor tattoo-less sailors in your worlds.



A handful of coppers should do for a simple, black ink tattoo.

A few silver for a bit of color or decent artistic merit.

A few gold for a nice tattoo with color and good design.

A few platinum for high quality, full color, large tattoos.

 

[rgoodbb]

My Arcana Cleric of Savras (Knowledge, All Seeing Eye.) has closed eyes tattooed all over his torso. When he divines in any way, the eyes open and move. He paid a few hundred GP for these.......Well worth it.

 

[The Glen]

For us it was the rogue is a bull mastiff lupin rogue who wanted a skull tattoo on his chest, despite being covered in black fur. The rest of the party pointed out how pointless getting a tattoo was for him, so I didn't have to come up with a price off the top of my head.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

For us it was the rogue is a bull mastiff lupin rogue who wanted a skull tattoo on his chest, despite being covered in black fur. The rest of the party pointed out how pointless getting a tattoo was for him, so I didn't have to come up with a price off the top of my head.

I dunno, I'd probably allow something like a permanent hair dye, or some alchemical concoction that makes the fur there grow in a different color, as a tattoo-like effect for fur-covered characters.

 

[rgoodbb]

For us it was the rogue is a bull mastiff lupin rogue who wanted a skull tattoo on his chest, despite being covered in black fur. The rest of the party pointed out how pointless getting a tattoo was for him, so I didn't have to come up with a price off the top of my head.

As long as the fur has grown back that's just a....I have that, and I know about that, even if you don't, kind of personal thing that makes players just feel cool about themselves........Now though, if they had that waxed off now....That's a whole new level of constitution/pain endurance/madness......ow-chiwawa! type of thing that should grant a few extra XP I feel...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If the furry dude wants the tat to show, step 1 would be shaving the area.

Well actually, step 2 would be shaving the area. Step 1 would be having a branding iron made either featureless but big enough to give the tat sufficient room, or in the actual shape & pattern of the tattoo...

 

[Anakzar]

Some hound-men use a cold iron to freeze brand their dogs to mitigate theft. Letters or symbols are most common. The area to be branded is first shaved then the iron, usually brass is dipped in liquid nitrogen. Brand is only held on for a few seconds, too much and there is scaring, too little and it don't work. The hair grows back in white where the brand touched.

A white skull on black fur would look great... I would guess a cold spell could stand in for the nitrogen,
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