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Procedure price report · Other non-OR therapeutic procedures on skin and breast

Tattooing skin to correct color, 6 to 20 sq cm

CPT 11921the billing code this page is about

Placing pigment into the skin to camouflage a color defect or scar, covering a treated area between about 6 and 20 square centimeters.

Hospitals typically charge $724 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 364 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $793. Most fall between $330 and $1,686 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
364
States
44
Filings dated
Jun 2024 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 364 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$205$436$724$1,148$2,317

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 11× what the cheapest tenth charges ($205 vs $2,317).

How the prices are spread

$141 – $193: 16 hospitals$141$193 – $264: 25 hospitals$264 – $360: 18 hospitals$264$360 – $492: 24 hospitals$492 – $671: 68 hospitals$492$671 – $917: 60 hospitals$917 – $1,253: 50 hospitals$917$1,253 – $1,711: 17 hospitals$1,711 – $2,337: 32 hospitals$1,711$2,337 – $3,192: 18 hospitals$2,337median $724price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (328 of 364 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$141$19316
$193$26425
$264$36018
$360$49224
$492$67168
$671$91760
$917$1,25350
$1,253$1,71117
$1,711$2,33732
$2,337$3,19218

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$755
Median cash price$724
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.96×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $724.

Alaska: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $611 across 20 hospitalsIL$611Wisconsin: median $910 across 22 hospitalsWI$910Michigan: median $494 across 15 hospitalsMI$494New York: median $724 across 23 hospitalsNY$724Massachusetts: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureORNevada: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $520 across 14 hospitalsIA$520Indiana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $932 across 26 hospitalsOH$932Pennsylvania: median $460 across 22 hospitalsPA$460New Jersey: median $817 across 30 hospitalsNJ$817Connecticut: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $2,122 across 27 hospitalsCA$2,122Utah: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceUTColorado: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVAMaryland: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $214 across 12 hospitalsOK$214Louisiana: median $219 across 11 hospitalsLA$219Mississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $953 across 20 hospitalsTX$953Florida: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $724. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
California CA27$2,122+193%$1,418 – $2,122
Texas TX20$953+32%$637 – $1,057
Ohio OH26$932+29%$502 – $1,148
Wisconsin WI22$910+26%$910 – $2,874
New Jersey NJ30$817+13%$678 – $5,110
New York NY23$7240%$661 – $923
Illinois IL20$611−16%$503 – $1,867
Iowa IA14$520−28%$520 – $520
Michigan MI15$494−32%$306 – $1,016
Pennsylvania PA22$460−36%$84 – $1,252
Louisiana LA11$219−70%$162 – $357
Oklahoma OK12$214−70%$214 – $214
Idaho ID8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Oregon OR8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Virginia VA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $724.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care303$710$306 – $1,260
Children’s18fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access42$910$436 – $1,686
Ownership
For-profit38$656$292 – $1,148
Government38$598$311 – $907
Non-profit287$788$348 – $1,822
System affiliation
Part of a system311$788$365 – $1,769
Independent53$575$231 – $937

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,199
Median cash price$724
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

226 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $644 and the average of the middle 60% is $738; most fall between $380 and $1,216.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 226 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$214$401$644$1,102$2,122

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 9.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($214 vs $2,122).

Of the 249 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 226 gave a usable cash price; 12 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 11 a list price only.

How complete is this

364 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (9%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 395 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted364
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here18
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded12
Hospitals that filed this code395

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 23, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other non-OR therapeutic procedures on skin and breast family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Tattooing Incl Micropigmentation 6.1-20.0 Cm.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Tattooing skin to correct color, 6 to 20 sq cm (CPT 11921) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-11921-tattooing-skin-to-correct-color-6-to-20-sq-cm