How InInk got tattoo bookings off Instagram DMs

Meet InInk

InInk is a booking platform for tattoo artists. Flash is how a lot of them sell — a design with a size, a price, and a duration — and the following already lives on Instagram. What did not live there was a page a client could actually book from.

The challenge

The inbox was the diary

The diary, the deposit, and the cancellation policy sat in the inbox, or nowhere a client could see. A wanna-do meant a DM, a screenshot, a Saturday that might already be gone. Flash Days and shop collabs made it worse: timed work, several artists, no gallery that could open and close. When the book was shut, there was nowhere to wait. Custom work arrived as a pile of references. Aftercare lived in a highlight someone might never open.

Not “the Uber for tattoos.” Put flash, availability, and policy on one page a client can book from — so a wanna-do becomes a held slot.

The solution

The page came first: flash with sizes, prices, and durations, the artist’s schedule, deposits and cancellation in the same place they share as a link. Clients browse, pick a slot, pay. Stripe holds the deposit or takes the full amount. Then the rest of how a studio actually books — Flash Days as timed galleries, including collabs; custom requests with references and preferred dates; a waitlist when booking is closed; messaging and aftercare. Optional Google Calendar so the diary they already use is not a second system. Studio pages list shop artists so the shop is not a row of Instagram handles. I built it as the booking desk Instagram was pretending to be.

• Put flash — sizes, prices, durations — with the schedule and booking policy on one shareable page
• Take a Stripe deposit, or the full amount, when they pick a slot, so the chair is actually held
• Then Flash Days, custom requests, waitlists, and studio pages — so the page still holds when flash isn't the whole book

Stripe for deposits and payment. Optional Google Calendar sync.

The results

• Flash, availability, and policy on one shareable page
• Clients book and pay a deposit, or in full, via Stripe
• Flash Days as timed galleries, including multi-artist collabs
• Custom requests with references and preferred dates
• Waitlists when booking isn’t open
• Studio pages that list shop artists

Openings and wanna-dos convert into booked appointments instead of dying in a DM thread.

The artist sends a link. The client picks a design and a slot and pays. The chair is held.