Tattoo deposits: how much to take and when you can keep one

A deposit does two jobs. It holds a date in your diary that you could have given to someone else, and it pays you something towards the drawing you do before the client sits down. Most arguments about deposits come from a policy that was never written down, or one that keeps more money than the artist actually lost. This guide covers what UK consumer law says, how big a deposit should be, and how to word a policy that holds up.

What the law looks at

Your clients are consumers, so your booking terms are tested for fairness under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Under section 62(1), "An unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer." The Act's "grey list" in Schedule 2 names terms that may be unfair. Three of them matter for deposits: a term that lets the trader keep money the consumer has paid when the consumer pulls out, without the consumer getting an equivalent amount when the trader pulls out; a term that makes a consumer who pulls out pay "a disproportionately high sum in compensation or for services which have not been supplied"; and a term that makes a consumer who fails to keep their side pay a disproportionately high sum.

The Competition and Markets Authority explains how it reads those terms in its guidance, CMA37. Paragraph 6.60 says a term that makes "any substantial prepayment entirely non-refundable, regardless of the circumstances or the amount of costs and losses caused by termination" is more likely to be unfair. Paragraph 6.62 says keeping a prepayment is more likely to be fair when the client is at fault and you keep what you reasonably need to cover your unavoidable net costs or the net profit you lose as a direct result.

The same paragraph says a genuine deposit may be kept in full as long as it works as a binding reservation, you tell the client at the earliest opportunity that a deposit is needed, and you set out the precise circumstances in which it is not refundable. Those circumstances must be "clear and narrow". It adds that such a deposit "will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price", and that a larger prepayment may amount to a disguised penalty.

Which? puts it from the client's side: a business can generally keep enough to cover its actual losses from the cancellation, which can include lost profit, but not money it saves by finding another customer.

How big a deposit should be

The law does not set a figure, and the CMA does not define "small percentage". What follows from the guidance is that the bigger the deposit is compared with the price, the harder it is to justify keeping all of it. A deposit you can explain in terms of real costs is the safest kind: the hours you spend drawing, and the session you are unlikely to fill at short notice.

For a large piece over several sittings, a deposit sized to the first session is easier to defend than one sized to the whole sleeve. For a sense of what studios ask, the tattoo cost calculator shows a suggested deposit, next to typical prices.

The cancellation period question

If a client books at a distance, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 can give them a right to cancel. Regulation 29 lets a consumer cancel a distance or off-premises contract during the cancellation period "without giving any reason", and for a service regulation 30 ends that period 14 days after the day the contract is made.

Regulation 28 takes some contracts out of that right, including "services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance". Whether a tattoo appointment counts as a leisure activity is an open question. We found no court decision or official guidance that answers it either way, so we do not give a position here. If your policy depends on it, ask a solicitor who handles consumer contracts.

Write the policy down

A deposit policy a client can read in a minute covers these points:

• The amount, and that it comes off the final price.
• What the client is paying for: holding the date, and any drawing time.
• Exactly when it stops being refundable, as a time before the session rather than "late notice".
• What happens if you cancel or move the session. If you cancel, refunding the deposit in full is what most clients will expect, and keeping it is hard to defend.
• Whether a client can move the date once, and how much notice that needs.

Send it before the client pays, not after. CMA37 says the client should know at the earliest opportunity that a deposit is needed and when it would not come back. Keep a copy of what each client agreed to, because your policy may change over time.

When a client cancels

Look at what you actually lost. If you fill the slot from a waiting list, there is less to keep; Which? suggests that once a business resells the slot, administrative costs are likely to be all it can hold back. If the client cancels the night before and the chair stays empty, keeping most or all of a modest deposit is far easier to justify. Our guide to no-shows and cancellations covers this in more detail.

How deposits work on TattooInn

You set your deposit on your profile. A booking is not confirmed until the client has paid it, and it is paid into your own Stripe account. The deposit always comes off the final price, so the balance on the day is the price minus the deposit. What happens to it on a cancellation follows the tiers you set, and if you cancel, the client gets the whole deposit back. See how TattooInn works for artists, or how booking apps compare on fees.