Sliding scale policy

Catalpa Sliding Scale Policy

We acknowledge that there are a variety of systemic barriers limiting/precluding community members’ access to our tattoo services. One way that we attempt to address those barriers is by offering a sliding scale option for our tattoos. We recognize that systems of privilege are not individual but instead systemic, familial, and interconnected. We hope to address these and to foster a measure of equity in how our clientele access our tattoos.

We ask that you reflect on the following questions to help guide this conversation about fees:

Please note that it is not necessary to tell us the answers to these questions nor share your personal socio-economic history with our artists. We treat our sliding scale as an honour system.

Do you have a stable income?

Do you have degrees/certifications that provide long-term job security?

Do you have a partner/partners with access to financial or family wealth/inheritance? Do you have access to family inheritance?

Do your parents have financial wealth? Do they have inheritances?

Do you fear how to pay your bills every month? How to feed yourself? Do you feel shame/guilt to ask for financial support?

Do you have debt(s) that consume a large portion of your income?

Do your race, ethnicity, skin colour, health, ability and/or gender impact your income?

If you are uncertain whether you should access our sliding scale, or where you land on our scale, please feel free to talk to your artist. We will try our best to guide you to a conclusion that is rooted in integrity and understanding of how access to wealth plays a role in all our lives. We will not choose an amount for you, but we trust that you will make a choice that reflects an informed and genuine recognition of your relationship to wealth.

If you have access to family wealth (such as parents who own large homes, travel internationally etc.), inheritance, or partner wealth, please pay the full fee. This enables us at Catalpa to offer lower rates to those who historically have less access to wealth, such as BIPOC, trans women, people with disabilities, as well as first- and second-generation immigrants. We aim to prioritize our sliding scale for people who 1) do not have any family, partner, or systemic wealth, and who 2) have difficulty accessing stable work and paying their bills.

We appreciate you taking the time to read and consider our sliding scale policy, and we hope that it sheds some light on our goals to increase the accessibility of our work at Catalpa.