Inside Tattoo Shops' Lucky Day: The Business of Friday the 13th
On Friday the 13th, many tattoo shops in the US nearly triple their average Friday sales – and new Square data shows the tradition is growing.
Friday the 13th doubles as tattoo culture’s unofficial holiday, with walk-in flash designs and $13 price tags to celebrate. Square’s transaction data – drawn from tattoo shops across the country – shows that the flash-sale tradition hasn’t faded with novelty, but rather intensified as a trend and, as Square data shows: a revenue driver.
Across every Friday the 13th going back to 2018, item volume at tattoo shops spiked well above an average Friday in the same year. In 2018, Friday the 13th sales landed up to 86% above a typical Friday in the same year. By 2026, that spike has consistently landed in the 170–191% increase range – nearly tripling average Friday volumes.
The $13 tattoo has become its own menu addition and a volume strategy
What began as a seemingly fun, flash-sale trend has evolved into a meaningful volume strategy. Square data shows that many tattoo shops don’t just offer a single $13 design on the day – they build menus around the occasion to drive traffic. On Friday the 13th days, Square data shows operators adding the options of $13 per small, pre-drawn flash piece; $20 for “quarter size” tattoos or color add-ons; $30 to $31 for slightly larger designs; $40 for “half dollar size”; and up to $70 for a “palm size” piece. Some shops use color-coded systems: red for $20, green for $30, blue for $50, to keep the day organized when walk-ins spike and may quickly choose designs off a sheet.
As the average tattoo costs approximately $140 on non-Friday the 13th days, these flash prices represent a noteable, deliberate discount. This suggests tattoo shops are trading their usual margin for foot traffic, strategically utilizing flash pieces to pull in first-timers and hoping they return for full-price custom work on later visits.
It’s not just tattoos we see discounted. Piercing specials are also common on Friday the 13th, often bundled directly alongside the flash-tattoo deals. Square data also shows ‘raincheck’ gift cards, which allow customers to lock in the discounted price on the day itself and return later to actually get inked, stretching the sales event beyond the calendar date.
“Friday the 13th has become one of those days that people really look forward to in the tattoo and piercing world,” said Gregory Ferreira, Co-Founder of Live By The Sword Tattoo. “At Live By The Sword, we welcome the energy and excitement it brings to the shops. The busy yet communal atmosphere gives everyone a chance to come in and get a great tattoo or piercing at a great price while making new friends and memories. At heart, we are a high-volume street shop, so we’re built for days like this. For us it’s not just about sales, but about making new long lasting clients and showing people a great time!”
Where the tradition hits hardest
Some cities leverage the Friday the 13th tattoo tradition more than others. Phoenix, Arizona posts the single largest spike in tattoo activity of any major market. There, we see item sales jump more than 500% above a typical Friday. San Antonio, Texas does the most total business across major US cities, with the greatest number of tattoo parlours participating. Texas dominates the list overall, with San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Waco, and Fort Worth all landing among the top 20 cities nationally.
New York City tells a different story. Its Friday the 13th spike is comparatively modest, but New York tattoos command the highest price per item of any major market on the list, suggesting the city’s shops lean into premium, custom work even on a day built around discounts elsewhere. College towns, meanwhile, are also maximizing the occasion: Athens, Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida both post some of the largest spikes in the entire dataset, hinting at how central the tradition has become for a younger, tattoo-friendly generation.
A pandemic footnote
The single biggest Friday the 13th on record wasn’t a typical year. It was March 13, 2020, the last one before COVID lockdowns swept the country. Sales spiked 196% in items and 148% in dollars that day, as customers (perhaps) got inked ahead of shop closures.
What to expect this November
Friday the 13th lands again this coming November, and the recent pattern gives a strong indication that tattoo shops may be keeping up the tradition. The two most recent occurrences, in February and March of this year, each drove item spikes in the 170–190% range, in line with the last several years’ trend.
Methodology: Figures reflect aggregated and anonymized item and transaction data from U.S. tattoo shops using Square, comparing each Friday the 13th since 2018 (15 dates total) against the average of other Fridays in the same month. Items were identified via keyword match on “tattoo,” excluding tattoo supplies and unrelated false positives.