Websites for Tattoo & Piercing Studios
Portfolio is everything, and every artist in the studio has their own style — which is exactly why one shared gallery does none of them justice. Clients don't book a studio, they book an artist, and if that artist can't be found by name you've handed the enquiry to whoever could be.
Audit back within 24 hours · Working demo within 2 days · No deposit, ever
The four problems I find most in this trade.
Not generic web-design advice. These are the specific failures that turn up over and over when running real Google audits on businesses like yours — each one with what it's actually costing you and how it gets fixed.
One shared gallery for every artist
Instagram is doing the job of a website
Deposits and process aren't explained
Portfolio images take forever
Want to know which of these apply to you? Test your site free on the home page for the speed number in thirty seconds, or ask for the written audit and get all four checked properly by hand, back within 24 hours.
Designed around your business, not a template.
A custom black-and-grey artist, a walk-in traditional shop and a piercing-led studio are entirely different propositions. A custom artist is booked months ahead on portfolio strength alone, so the gallery and the consultation flow do everything. A walk-in shop wins on availability and flash designs, so "open now" and today's availability matter more than depth. A piercing studio is judged on hygiene credentials and aftercare above all else, because the client is nervous. Which of those you are decides the whole structure before any design starts.
- Home led by the studio's strongest work
- A page per artist, each findable by name
- Flash designs and current availability
- Aftercare and studio policies
- Pricing, deposits and how booking works
- Contact and design consultation enquiry
- Portfolio per artist with click-to-enlarge
- Instagram feed per artist, pulled in automatically
- Deposits and cancellation policy stated plainly
- Aftercare pages people come back to
- Guest artist announcements
- Waiting list or enquiry queue (Platform tier)
- TattooParlor schema with services and hours
- Each artist findable by name in search
- Style-based pages — realism, traditional, fine line
- Google Business Profile with real portfolio photos
- Review schema for stars in results
- Genuinely fast portfolios, on mobile
What it would cost you.
Guide prices based on the typical scope for this trade, one-off, with £0 a month on every tier. The free audit turns this into a real number — often a lower tier than people expect. And don't feel boxed in by the recommendation: pick by what you need the site to do.
- Home, Portfolio, Artists, Pricing, Contact
- Gallery of recent work, compressed to load fast
- Aftercare information and studio policies
- Deposit and booking process explained clearly
- Enquiry form for design consultations
- Everything in Starter, up to 8 pages
- A page per artist with their own portfolio and style
- Click-to-enlarge on every piece
- Flash designs and current availability section
- Reviews and studio hygiene credentials displayed
- Everything in Business, up to 12 pages
- Artists upload their own new work
- Guest artist announcements you post yourself
- Waiting list or enquiry queue
- Instagram feed per artist
- Free audit with real Google data first
- A working demo before you pay anything
- £0 per month — hosting is genuinely free, forever
- Your existing booking or payment system kept exactly as is
- Built mobile-first and tested to WCAG 2.2 AA
- You own the code, the domain and every login
- 14-day fix guarantee from launch
- No deposit at any point before you've seen the work
Want to edit it yourself? You don't need the top tier for that. Add the £150 self-edit content panel to any build and change prices, photos and text yourself with no monthly fee — it's on the add-ons list with everything else.
Worth adding for tattoo studios
Fixed one-off prices, addable to any tier, and addable later rather than up front. These four are the ones that actually earn their money in this trade — the full list of fifteen is on the pricing page.
Don't buy any of these speculatively. After the free audit you'll be told which one or two would genuinely move your numbers, and which of the rest would just be me taking your money.
The searches that actually bring you work.
Getting found isn't one thing called “SEO” — it's whether your pages answer the exact questions being typed. Here are the ones that matter in this trade, and what your site has to say to win them.
| What they type | What your site has to answer |
|---|---|
| “tattoo artist [town] realism” | Style-specific work, attributed to a named artist |
| “[artist name] tattoo” | A page for that artist that Google can find |
| “tattoo deposit how much [town]” | Your deposit policy, stated on the page |
| “walk in tattoo near me” | Whether you take walk-ins and whether you're open now |
| “piercing aftercare” | Aftercare content — which also brings people back to the site |
Every one of these is winnable locally, because most of your competitors have never written a page that answers them. That's the whole job: one properly written page per real question, marked up so Google can read it, on a site fast enough to keep the person who clicked.
The ones that come up every time.
Everything already runs through Instagram. Why bother with a site?
Because Instagram is where people look once they already know you exist. Nobody searches Instagram for "fine line tattoo artist in Sheffield" — they search Google, and that traffic goes to studios with real pages. The site catches those searches and the Instagram feed still displays on it, so you lose nothing and gain the search presence you currently have none of.
Can each artist manage their own portfolio?
Yes. On the £1,495 tier it's included; on the lower tiers the £150 edit panel gives each artist their own login to upload work, with no monthly fee. Images are compressed automatically on upload, so nobody can accidentally slow the site down.
Should the deposit policy really be on the website?
Yes — it's the single most-asked question before booking, and every hour spent answering it in DMs is an hour not tattooing. Stating the deposit, the consultation process and the cancellation terms plainly also filters out the enquiries that were never going to convert.
Two ways to start, both free.
Already have a site? Take the audit — real Google data plus the checks an automated tool can't run, back within 24 hours. Haven't got one? Take the demo — a real working site for your business on a live link within 2 days. Neither costs you anything and neither needs a deposit.