If you intend to open a tattoo shop business, you will be required to buy insurance policies for the business. This is so because in the United States and in most countries of the world, you cannot legally operate a business without insurance.
Aside from the fact that the law requires you to get insurance policy covers for your tattoo shop business, it is important to state that insurance policies are designed to protect you, your staff members, your customers, and your business from claims.
Note that you cannot categorically state how much insurance policy coverage will cost a tattoo shop business without clearly stating the type of insurance policy coverage you would need for the business.
As a matter of fact, if you own a tattoo shop business, you will be exposed to cases such as bodily injury, property damage, medical payments, legal defense and judgment, and personal and advertising injury among others.
Proper insurance coverage can help protect the tattoo shop’s financial stability and reputation in case of unexpected events or claims.
Best Insurance Policy for a Tattoo Shop
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General Liability Insurance
This insurance protects other staff members from suffering financial losses when your staff member causes an accident. This insurance also helps to pay for injuries and damages to other people when your employee is at fault for an accident that happened in your tattoo shop. This business coverage comes in two specific ways: bodily injury and property damage.
Bodily Injury: Note that when there is an accident in your tattoo shop, the bodily injury portion caters to the cost of medical care for the victims involved.
Keep in mind that this coverage pays for medical bills and other expenses. This means that insurance will also cover the cost of emergency and ongoing medical care. It also pays for the expenses incurred for rehabilitation, physical therapy, and recuperation.
It goes further to cater to the victims of pain and suffering, and if applicable it pays for lost wages due to time off work. When accidents cause fatalities, this coverage also pays for the victim’s funeral expenses.
Property Damage: If your organization is at fault for an accident, the property damages portion of your liability insurance will cater for the cost of repairs that the other person suffered.
Cost of General Liability Insurance: On average, tattoo shops in the United States spend between $500 – $1,200 per year for $1 million in general liability coverage. Note that several factors will determine the price of your policy and some of them are;
- Your Location
- Your Deductible
- The Number of Your Employees
- Your Per-occurrence limit
- General aggregate limit
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Workers Compensation Insurance
Even though general liability insurance protects your business from accidents, it usually doesn’t cover damages that you have the capacity to avoid. It simply means that a lot of workplace injuries are not covered.
Note that if an employee ends up with medical expenses from the workplace accident, workers’ compensation insurance can pay them for the time they were out of work, as well as their medical costs.
In return, the employee forgoes the right to sue the employer. Keep in mind that this is a mutually beneficial solution, and it is usually the easiest and quickest one as well.
Without workers comp in place, you might end up with a month-long legal battle that will drain the wallets of both the business and the defendant.
Cost of Workers Compensation Insurance: Nationwide, the average cost of workers’ compensation insurance is $936 per employee, per year, or $78 per month.
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Medical Payments Insurance
If anyone is injured, irrespective of who is at fault for the accident, medical payment coverage will cater to the associated medical bills.
It is advisable to speak with a licensed insurance agent to determine if it is a viable option for your tattoo shop business insurance needs.
Cost of Medical Payments Insurance: The average national cost for health insurance is $456 for an individual and $1,152 for a family per month. However, costs vary among the wide selection of health plans.
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Physical Damage Insurance
If your tattoo equipment is damaged or destroyed due to unexpected events and perils, this coverage will ultimately cater to the repairs and replacement of the equipment.
This is quite crucial for equipment that is not fully paid for, and those that are leased, because it provides the highest level of loss protection.
Comprehensive Physical Damage: This damage protects your equipment against a wide variety of potential day-to-day risks.
It also protects you against theft; break-ins, vandalism, damages caused by natural events such as hailstorms, and more. This damage protection covers most damages that are not caused by overturning or by collision.
Specified Peril (CAC): This specified peril insurance provides you with protection against only those events and risks that are specifically listed on your tanning equipment insurance policy. It is also known as CAC, which is short for Fire and Theft with Combined Additional Coverage.
Cost of Physical Damage Insurance: In the U.S. most businesses pay an average of $1,771 per year for full coverage utility truck insurance, or about $148 per month, according to Bankrate’s 2022 analysis.
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Cyber Liability Insurance
Most businesses including tattoo shops leverage online resources to run their businesses including using CRM and booking software.
This means that the business can be subjected to cyber-attacks. Come to think of it, it is common for tattoo shops to collect customers’ information for appointments or marketing via online platforms. They also store such information online (cloud storage).
This goes to show that a tattoo shop can be exposed to cyberattack hence the need for cyber liability insurance which help protect the tattoo shop from data breaches and cyberattacks.
Cost of Cyber Liability Insurance: The cost of cyber liability insurance depends on your policy limits and how much sensitive data your company handles. Small businesses pay an average premium of $145 per month or about $1,740 annually for cyber insurance.
Small business customers pay an average of $145 monthly for a cyber insurance policy, 38% pay less than $100 per month, and 33% pay between $100 and $200 per month.
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Commercial Umbrella Insurance
Commercial umbrella insurance complements your other liability coverages by taking over when your other liability coverage limits have been reached.
Although commercial umbrella insurance is not mandatory for a tattoo shop business, it will not be out of place if you go the extra mile to purchase commercial umbrella insurance for your business.
As a matter of fact, if you own a big tattoo shop business and you own several utility tanning equipment, then you should make sure you buy commercial umbrella insurance for your tattoo shop business.
Cost of Commercial Umbrella Insurance: Commercial umbrella insurance costs about $40 per month for each $1 million of additional coverage. Your level of risk and how much coverage you buy determine the cost of this policy.
Note that many small businesses (17%) pay less than $500 per year for umbrella insurance and 36% pay between $500 and $1,000 per year.
Insurance Companies That Offer Policies for Tattoo Shop
- Mutual of Omaha
- New York Life
- State Farm
- MassMutual
- Pacific Life
- OneAmerica
- 21st Century Insurance
- Acuity Insurance
- Allianz Life
- Allied Insurance
- Allstate
- American National Insurance Company
- Liberty Mutual
- Lincoln National Corporation
- Manhattan Life Insurance Company
- Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
- New York Life Insurance Company
- MEGA Life and Health Insurance
- Gerber Life Insurance Company
- Globe Life And Accident Insurance Company
- GMAC Insurance
- Accident Fund Insurance Company of America
- American International Group (AIG)
- AmTrust Financial Services
- Zenith Insurance Group.