Matthew Cherrington, 32, from West Bromwich, murdered 26-year-old sex worker Lidia Pascale, who was last seen on 19 November 2014.
Her body was discovered more than two weeks later in Hope Street, West Bromwich.
Cherrington must serve a minimum of 19 years, Birmingham Crown Court was told.
The electrician arranged for Ms Pascale, who had been working as an escort, to visit his flat where he attacked and killed her, West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Ms Pascale, who had been staying in Smethwick, West Midlands, and Coventry, had suffered at least 11 blows to the head.
Judge Melbourne Inman told Cherrington he was "a very dangerous man capable of extreme unprovoked violence" who had "never shown any remorse or regret."
The CPS said Cherrington, of High Street, tried to "evade detection" and had blamed an associate for Ms Pascale's disappearance.
Mobile phone analysis showed he had contacted several escorts including Ms Pascale on the day of the murder, the CPS said.
Emily Lenham, from the CPS, said: "A very dangerous man has been convicted of a brutal and senseless crime."
A West Midlands Police spokesperson said the force was supporting Ms Pascale's family, who are from Tulcea in Romania.

Government sources told the BBC that the tribal fighters set fire to a building used by the militants.
The source said 10 IS militants and five tribesmen had died in the clashes that followed.
Issa al-Issawi, the exiled mayor of Fallujah, said that more tribesmen were joining the fight against IS.
Reports said the violence involved men from multiple tribes and IS members known as al-Hisba, who are responsible for enforcing religious strictures in the city.
"Clashes took place between sons of the al-Mahamda and al-Juraisat tribes against the al-Hisba group," Mr Issawi told AFP news agency.
He said the violence stemmed from tensions over increasingly difficult living conditions while Fallujah is besieged by Iraqi security forces.
Sheikh Majeed al-Juraisi, a leader in the al-Juraisat tribe, told AFP the clashes were part of an uprising against IS fighters in the city and called on the government and security forces to help.
Reports suggested the tribesmen had seized parts of the north of the city, but later ceded the ground back to IS jihadists.
Fallujah, which is about 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, has been held by anti-government forces since the beginning of 2014 and is now one of two Iraqi cities still under the IS group's control.
IS militants launched a sweeping offensive in June 2014 that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, but security forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with support from US-led air strikes.
A man convicted of bludgeoning to death a Romanian woman whose body was found in a wheelie bin has been jailed for life.
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Local tribesmen have reportedly clashed with fighters from the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the IS stronghold of Fallujah in western Iraq.