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 Manchester.
£1,399 from
Secure your place with a £300 deposit.
Greater Manchester
Want to learn to tattoo and based in Rochdale? Train at Manchester Tattoo College, an accredited college that is an easy trip from Rochdale. 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 Rochdale and across Greater Manchester.
Go from complete beginner to tattooing a live model in ten days. Our most complete course, taught in small groups in central Manchester.
£1,399 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 Manchester studio and open to Rochdale 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 Rochdale
Rochdale connects straight into central Manchester by Metrolink and rail, so the studio is an easy trip. Manchester Tattoo College teaches in small groups on real skin, under working artists, in a licensed city-centre studio.
We welcome students from across Rochdale and nearby towns, from Heywood and Middleton to Milnrow and Littleborough. You can take the full 10-day course or a short fine line course and travel in each day.
Getting here
around 25 minutes by tram or train from Rochdale into central Manchester. Deansgate is one of Manchester's best-connected stations and the studio is a few minutes away.
about 35–45 minutes by road via the A58 or M62 depending on traffic. In practice the Metrolink or a train is usually faster than driving into Manchester.
regular bus routes connect Rochdale with Manchester city centre, dropping you close to the studio.
Rochdale is close enough for a daily commute; most local students travel in on the tram or train rather than staying over.
Find us
Manchester Tattoo College
Liverpool Road
Castlefield, Manchester, M3 4JR
The studio is on Liverpool Road in Castlefield, central Manchester (M3 4JR); a few minutes from Deansgate and Manchester Piccadilly, and served by the Metrolink tram, local rail and city bus routes. We send full arrival directions when you book.
Get directionsWhy 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 Manchester 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 Greater Manchester, including Heywood, Middleton, Milnrow, Littleborough, Norden, Castleton.
We also train students from Wigan, Ashton-under-Lyne, Altrincham, Sale, Stretford. 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 Manchester. 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.
Still deciding
If you are travelling from Rochdale 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.