Tattoo studio

A tattoo appointment is rarely an appointment; it is a project made of several. Between the first enquiry and the last session sit consultation, design, a deposit, one or more long sittings and the aftercare. This section describes how to organise that sequence without anyone drawing a design twice or a whole studio day standing empty.

The first peculiarity is length. A sitting of five or six hours ties up a station, a person and a day. A single no-show therefore costs more than in any other trade — and that is precisely why deposits are customary in tattooing and are not taken as unfriendly. How large they are in your own studio, when they lapse, and how that is communicated clearly beforehand is a subject of its own here.

The second is the enquiry. Hardly any enquiry arrives ready to book; it arrives as an idea, often with pictures, often through messages at inconvenient hours. Turning that into an orderly path — enquiry, follow-up questions, rough scope, consultation appointment, sitting — decides how many evenings go on answering messages.

The third is the record. Motif, placement, size, colours, session progress, aftercare instructions, consent and proof of age: much of it has to be held, and part of it is especially sensitive, because a motif almost always comes with a photograph. What is stored, who may see it and what of it belongs in a public gallery is described here as practice — hygiene requirements and retention periods are set by the relevant authority, and they differ from place to place.

Permanent make-up and device-based treatments follow different rules and sit under beauty studio. Cross-cutting questions about team and capacity are under studio management, and choosing a booking system under salon software.