10-Day Beginner Tattoo Course
Go from complete beginner to tattooing a live model in ten days. Our most complete course, taught in small groups in central London.
£1,499 from
Secure your place with a £300 deposit.
East London (Barking & Dagenham)
Want to learn to tattoo and based in Dagenham? Train at London Tattoo College, an accredited college that is an easy trip from Dagenham. Small classes, real skin and live models, and a CPD accredited course with a certificate of competence at the end.
Pay in installments with Klarna
Courses
Every course is open to students travelling from Dagenham and across East London (Barking & Dagenham).
Go from complete beginner to tattooing a live model in ten days. Our most complete course, taught in small groups in central London.
£1,499 from
Secure your place with a £300 deposit.
Start straight into the fine-line style clients ask for most. Four focused days on delicate single-needle line work, for beginners.
£849 from
Secure your place with a £250 deposit.
For SPMU, microblading and beauty professionals: add fine-line tattooing to your services in a focused two-day intensive.
£699 from
Secure your place with a £250 deposit.
Dates
All dates are at our London studio and open to Dagenham students. Places are limited to keep groups small.
What's included
Who it is for
Different starting points, same goal. Find yours.
Never held a machine? Start with the 10-Day Beginner Course and go from zero to tattooing a live model in two weeks.
10-Day Beginner Course
Want to specialise in the fine-line and single-needle style clients ask for most? The 4-Day Fine Line Course is built for that.
4-Day Fine Line Course
Already work in SPMU, microblading or beauty? Add fine-line tattooing to your services in a focused two-day intensive.
2-Day Fine Line CourseLearning to tattoo from Dagenham
If you are in Dagenham and searching for a tattoo course, you will not find an accredited college on your doorstep. What you will find is one about half an hour away. London Tattoo College sits in Stratford, and the District line from Dagenham Heathway puts you at West Ham with a single Jubilee line stop left to go.
That matters more than it sounds. Learning to tattoo properly means turning up day after day, on real skin, with a tutor watching your hand. A course you can reach in half an hour is a course you will actually finish, and Dagenham is close enough that nobody has ever needed to move or stay over to train with us.
Students come to us from right across the borough, from Becontree and Rush Green through to Elm Park and Barking Riverside. Some are complete beginners who have never held a machine. Others already work in beauty and want to add fine line tattooing to what they offer. Both start in the same room.
Getting here
about 30 minutes door to door: the District line from Dagenham Heathway or Dagenham East to West Ham, then one stop on the Jubilee line into Stratford. Stratford is one of London's best-connected stations and the studio is a few minutes away.
roughly 25 to 40 minutes by road along the A13 depending on the time of day, with parking easier at Stratford than almost anywhere else in east London. In practice the Tube, Elizabeth line or Overground is usually faster than driving into London.
regular buses run from Dagenham towards Barking and Ilford, where you can pick up the Elizabeth line straight into Stratford, dropping you close to the studio.
Dagenham is close enough that no accommodation is needed. Local students travel in each morning for both the 10-day beginner course and the shorter fine line courses, and are home the same evening.
Find us
London Tattoo College
Celebration Avenue
Stratford City, London, E20 1DB
The studio is in Stratford, East London (E20), a few minutes from Stratford station, served by the Central & Jubilee lines, the Elizabeth line, DLR, London Overground and national rail. We send full arrival directions when you book.
Get directions View on Google MapsWhy make the trip
We cap every course at a handful of students so a tutor watches your work, not a lecture hall. You get real bench time, not a seat at the back.
Artificial skin is where you start, not where you finish. Every course ends with a supervised tattoo on a live model, because that is the only way to be ready.
Your tutors tattoo professionally. You learn how the craft actually works today, from technique to how a studio really runs.
Cross-contamination control and blood-borne pathogen safety run through every course, to the standards UK studios and clients expect.
You finish with a London Tattoo College Certificate of Competence and a folder of supervised work you can put in front of any studio.
Your questions do not stop on the last day. We help with your portfolio, finding work, and the steps to setting up on your own.
We regularly welcome students from across East London (Barking & Dagenham), including Becontree, Rush Green, Elm Park, Dagenham East, Marks Gate, Barking Riverside.
We also train students from Ilford, Romford, Barking, Walthamstow, Hackney. See every area we cover.
Reviews
I started the 10-day course never having held a machine and tattooed a live model by the end. The small group meant the tutor actually watched every line I did.
The 4-day fine line course was exactly what I wanted. I came out able to hold a clean single-needle line and I've been building a fine-line portfolio since.
I run a microblading studio and the 2-day course let me add fine-line tattoos to my services in a weekend. It assumed I already knew skin and hygiene, which saved so much time.
Genuinely the most professional training I looked at in London. Real bench time, real feedback, and the hygiene side was taken seriously from day one. Worth every penny.
Travelled in from Brighton for the beginner diploma and it was completely worth the trip. Small class, patient tutors, and I left with a portfolio I could actually show studios.
I'd done an online course before and learned almost nothing. This was the opposite. Hands on machines from the first morning, corrected in real time. I finally feel ready to guest.
The hygiene and blood-borne pathogen side was covered properly, which is exactly what studios asked me about at interview. I walked in with a certificate and a portfolio and got the spot.
The small group meant I never felt lost or rushed. The tutors are working artists so the feedback is honest and current, not something read off a slide. Best decision I've made for my career.
As an SPMU artist the 2-day course was perfect. Focused, no filler, and it respected what I already knew. I was offering fine-line tattoos to my clients the following week.
Questions
Not an accredited one, no. The nearest proper tattoo training is London Tattoo College in Stratford, about 30 minutes from Dagenham on the District and Jubilee lines. Local tattoo shops sometimes offer informal mentoring, but that is not the same as a structured course with a qualification at the end.
Take the District line from Dagenham Heathway or Dagenham East to West Ham, then one stop on the Jubilee line to Stratford. The studio is a few minutes from the station. By car it is about 25 to 40 minutes along the A13 depending on traffic.
The 10-day beginner tattoo course is £1,499. The 4-day fine line course is £849, and the 2-day fine line course for experienced beauty professionals is £699. Equipment and materials are included for the duration of the course.
No. The 10-day beginner course assumes you have never picked up a tattoo machine. You will start on artificial skin and build up to tattooing a live model under supervision in the second week. If you already work in SPMU or microblading, the shorter fine line courses may suit you better.
Ten days across two weeks, Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. Week one is theory, hygiene and practice on artificial skin; week two is hands-on tattooing. Upcoming dates and remaining places are listed further up this page, and places are limited because groups are kept small.
Yes. The course is CPD accredited and you finish with a certificate of competence you can show to a studio anywhere, along with a portfolio of the work you produced during the course. We also cover the practical side of getting registered and finding your first shop.
You do not have to pay it all at once. A deposit holds your place - £300 on the 10-day beginner course, £250 on either fine line course - and the balance is due 7 days before your course starts. You can also spread the cost with Klarna at checkout, or pay the full amount up front if you prefer.
Let us know as soon as you can. The course builds day on day, so missing a session makes the rest harder to follow. In most cases your instructor can help you catch up during breaks and by spending extra time with you after the course. Get in touch and we will talk through your options.
We do not place you in a job, and you should be wary of anyone who promises that. What you leave with is a portfolio of supervised work, a certificate of competence, and guidance on the practical side - getting registered with your council, putting a portfolio in front of a studio, and what shops actually look for. Our student support does not stop when the course does, so you can come back to us with questions.
Still weighing it up? Our guide to becoming a tattoo artist in the UK covers what training costs and what studios look for, and we have written an honest comparison of courses and tattoo apprenticeships.
Still deciding
If you are travelling from Dagenham and want to check dates, plan your stay, or ask about a course, we are happy to help. Read our FAQs or get in touch and we will reply within one working day. You can also see all the places we welcome students from on our locations page.