Marketing Yourself as a Tattooer

Reading Time: 7 minutes

For decades, tattoo clients would go from shop to shop, looking at portfolios in local tattoo studios or picking flash off the wall. Seasoned artists would promise up-and-coming tattooers that “good tattoos sell themselves.”

At the time, they were right.

Nowadays, the tattoo industry is entirely different. In the age of the internet, clients can easily find artists all over their city or state and look at hundreds of individual styles and tattoo designs before making a decision. Very often, they won’t go into a shop to schedule a consultation or appointment. Instead, they’ll message the artist directly over social media or email.

Because of this, having a good portfolio isn’t enough. Having an online presence and marketing your work is how you can attract clients and build up a steady stream of income as a tattoo artist.

In this article, we’ll discuss five key principles that you can start implementing right now to begin marketing yourself or your studio to attract more clients, including:

Creating an email list where you can sell your tattoos

Using social media to get new clients onto your email list

Making the most of your social media bio

Gaining trust by getting reviews on Google

Building a simple and professional portfolio website

1. Email Marketing for Tattoo Artists

Posting on social media can be a hit-or-miss game. If a video doesn’t get attention right away, most social media platforms will essentially “retire” that piece of content, and it won’t get pushed out to more people.

Additionally, social media platforms can ban accounts without your permission. For many artists, losing a social media account could mean losing all their clientele. 

This is why pulling online followers onto an email list can be so beneficial. You own an email list. And email drops your message into a person’s inbox chronologically, meaning you don’t have to constantly fight an algorithm to reach your audience. 

Step One | Set Up Your Automated Email Sender

An automated email sender makes it easy for you to add people to your email list – and even makes it possible for potential clients to add themselves (more on that later). That way, when you have a promotion or message for your audience, you don’t have to individually add their contact information to an email (usually called a “Campaign”). Instead, you can select your entire list and simply click “send.” 

There are many automated email senders, though ConvertKit and Mailchimp offer some of the best free plans. 

Step Two | Create a Landing Page

Inside your automated email sender, you’ll find an option to create a Landing Page. This is where people will come and give you their email address. You can keep it simple and put “Subscribe to my email list” or you can offer a small incentive, since sometimes people don’t want to give you their email.

For example, you could set up the Landing Page to send someone a free eBook of your tattoo designs when they give you their email address. This free gift is called a Lead Magnet.

Step Three | Promote Your Lead Magnet

People love a free gift. So talk about your Lead Magnet on your social media and include a link to your Landing Page so people can go get it and add themselves to your email list. 

Nowadays, social media is absolutely flooded with pictures of tattoos. To stand out, you need to help people get to know you. When people online feel like they know you as a friend, they’ll be more likely to remember you when they want to get tattooed over a random artist whose face they’ve never seen before. 

Video is going to interest more people than photos. Whatever you choose to post, don’t be afraid to get in front of the camera. The more people begin to recognise you, the easier it will be for them to know, like, and trust you, which are the three keys someone has to have to buy tattoos from you.

Let Them KNOW You

To help potential clients get to know you, share the behind-the-scenes content. Share your studio, your process, your art, and pieces of your life. 

When they feel like they know who you are and what it would be like to spend time with you and get tattooed by you, it’s easier for them to like you.

Help Them to LIKE You

In today’s online world, followers (AKA your future clients) are looking for artists who are authentic and who they want to support. You can help future clients like you by showing your genuine personality and sharing your story. 

Be funny, be honest, be real. Let them know where you came from and where you want to go. Sharing a story they connect with forms the relationship people need to trust you.

Show They Can TRUST You

Getting tattooed often puts people in a vulnerable state – physically and emotionally. People want to trust that you’re going to give them a good experience and they want to feel like you know what you’re doing. 

Creating social media content that shares information about tattoo technique shows that you understand how to keep them safe during the process and that you have the experience necessary to deliver a good tattoo. (This is a great opportunity to share your past clients’ good experiences with you, too.) 

Paying to boost a post on social media can be an expensive game if you’re just throwing money behind random posts you put up. 

However, if you have a post (like a Reel or photo) that begins to go viral and people are contacting you and booking in for tattoos because of that post, you might want to pay to “boost” it so more people see it. Getting a client will usually more than cover the fee to boost a post.

Create Content Your Clients Are Looking For: Search Engine Optimisation

When you’re thinking about posts to create, consider what your ideal client might be searching for. Do they want tattoo aftercare advice? Would they be interested in how you create a unique lion tattoo design? Or they might want to know more about fineline tattoos. 

In each of these cases, creating a Reel or writing a post about common search terms like “tattoo aftercare advice,” “lion tattoo design,” and “fineline tattoos” will make it more likely for people to see your content because they went out looking for you. This process of creating content around searchable keywords is part of a larger marketing tactic called “Search Engine Optimisation,” or SEO. 

Stay Consistent

Staying consistent is often the hardest part of marketing your work online. The algorithm rewards people who post regularly. If potential clients are regularly seeing your art, you’ll see a steady stream of people joining your email list. If you don’t post for long periods of time, you can lose that momentum and you won’t stay front-of-mind for future clients. 

Even if it’s only one to two times a week, pick a posting schedule that works for you so you can remain consistent. 

You want the process of making an appointment with you to be as easy as possible. A lot of artists accidentally over-complicate this process by trying to be helpful. Giving people an email address to copy and paste or a 10-step form to fill out might feel organised, but most people will decide it’s not worth the effort.

If you’re not regularly booked out (which is when you would need a lot of information from clients up front), keep it simple. In your social media bio, let people know they can DM you for more information. 

Starting a conversation right away and doing that extra bit of admin work will make it more likely that they’ll book in than asking them to spend time filling out a form or describing the tattoo they want in an email. (Don’t forget to check your DMs!)

4. Register Your Business on Google and Collect Reviews

As soon as you have a studio space, you’ll want to register yourself as a business on Google. This will help you pop up on the map section of Google when people search “tattoo artist near me.”

One of the most important things about showing up in this section of Google is reviews. Whenever you give someone a tattoo, ask them to leave you a review on Google sharing their positive experience. This helps build trust with future clients who find you for the first time through Google. 

Reaching the #1 Spot

You can pay to sponsor yourself on Google. This will put you at the top of the list when people search for tattoo shops, gaining you more visibility. 

Please note that this will add a “Sponsored” label to your listing.

5. Create a Portfolio Website

Having social media helps people find you, but having a website “home” can help show your professionalism and make sure clients have all the information they need. This includes a gallery or portfolio section so people can look at your past work. 

You can build a website with pre-built frameworks from Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Canva, and more without any coding or web design experience. 

Make sure to connect your website to your business on Google. That way, when people look up “tattoo studios near me” and find you, they’ll be able to easily click the link to look at your work. 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, marketing isn’t about being fake online for attention. It’s about sharing your art and personality with the right people who will want to get tattooed by you. 

By using the tools covered in this list, you’ll make it easier for potential clients to find your work, trust your process, and book in with you. 

Good tattoos are the foundation of your craft, but when you combine them with smart marketing practices, you’ll be able to separate yourself from the crowd and build a tattoo career that supports your life.