The World's Top Rated Tattoo Shops (Checked 2026)
This list was written in 2013 and has been checked in September 2026. Two of the original eight have closed, which is a reasonable rate over thirteen years for a trade where the shop is usually one person's name.
Before the list, the honest framing: "top rated" is not a real category in tattooing. There is no ranking body, and the studios below are not interchangeable. What they have in common is that people get on aeroplanes for them, which is a different and more useful claim.
Tin-Tin Tatouages - Paris, France
37 rue de Douai, 75009. Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 7pm. Appointments in person or by email only.
Tin-Tin is the central figure in French tattooing and founded the Mondial du Tatouage, which ran its final edition at the Grande Halle de la Villette in early 2026 after drawing 16,000 visitors and 550 artists over three days. The studio is still working.
The Leu Family's Family Iron - Sainte Croix, Switzerland
Running since 1978, with three generations of the Leu family tattooing.
Filip Leu is probably the most respected large-scale tattooer in Europe, and the studio's reputation rests on back pieces and body suits rather than on anything you would get in an afternoon. This is a destination in the literal sense: people plan years around a Leu piece.
Horiyoshi III - Yokohama, Japan
The most documented living practitioner of Japanese irezumi.
Realistically, this is now a museum visit rather than a booking. Horiyoshi III is 80 and has been concentrating on silkscreen scroll painting; his son holds the Horiyoshi IV title and is his only active apprentice. The Horiyoshi III Tattoo Museum in Yokohama is open to visitors and worth the trip if traditional Japanese work interests you.
Hanky Panky - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Henk "Hanky Panky" Schiffmacher has been tattooing in Amsterdam since the 1970s, originally out of the red-light district, which is where the name comes from. His clients over the years included Lemmy, and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam.
His Amsterdam Tattoo Museum, built around his own collection, is the other reason to go - it is one of the few serious collections of tattoo history anywhere in the world.
Three Kings Tattoo - Brooklyn, New York
572 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint. Noon to 8pm Monday to Thursday and Sunday, 11am to 9pm Friday and Saturday. Walk-ins every day.
Open since 2008, and included here because it is the rare shop at this level that has stayed genuinely walk-in. American traditional, black and grey, portraits, traditional Japanese, Polynesian and new school.
Closed since this list was written
- Saved Tattoo, Brooklyn - closed June 2020.
- Tattoo Temple, D'Aguilar Street, Hong Kong - closed.
Toronto Ink and Sleevemasters in Sydney could not be confirmed either way and have been left out rather than pointed at.
How to actually pick a studio worth travelling for
A list like this is a starting point and a poor one, because it is a snapshot of who was famous in 2013. Better method:
Follow artists, not shops. At this level the shop is a room that a particular person works in. If they leave, the reputation leaves with them.
Watch the conventions. London, Milan, Paris, Tokyo and the big American shows are where the best work is visible in one place, and where you can meet an artist before committing.
Understand the waiting list. Artists at this level frequently open books for a short window a few times a year, and if you email outside that window you will not get a reply. That is not rudeness, it is volume.
Budget properly. Large work from a destination artist is a multi-sitting, multi-thousand commitment, often spread over years and several trips. Ask about the deposit and the reschedule policy before you book flights.
And do not travel for a small tattoo. A good local artist will do a small piece as well as a famous one, and you will not have to fly back for the touch-up.