A tattoo studio website: portfolio first

On a tattoo studio website, the work does the selling. Someone who wants a tattoo looks at the photos first, then the artist, then how to book. The "about us" text gets read last, if at all. So the site is built around the gallery, and everything else supports it.

The gallery, sorted by style

Someone who wants a fine black & grey piece won't scroll through a hundred color tattoos to find one. Split the gallery by style and let people filter. A handful of clear categories is enough: black & grey, color, fine line, lettering, cover-ups, piercing, whatever you actually do.

A few rules we follow:

• real photos of healed skin when you can; a fresh piece with red skin around it doesn't show how it'll look a month later;
• good light and a quiet background, with no filters that shift the colors;
• the artist's name on every piece, so people know who to ask for;
• fewer, better photos rather than your whole camera roll; a gallery of 300 weak shots buries the 30 great ones.

Design the gallery for thumbs: the filters sit at the top as big buttons, and the pieces flick by one after another on a phone. A dark background suits many tattoo portfolios, because the ink stands out better. The photos get all the room, and the text just frames them.

The artists, with their faces and their styles

In a studio with several artists, clients choose a person, not a business. Each artist needs a small page or section: their photo, the styles they work in and a few of their pieces. If someone is looking for a specific artist, they should find them in two taps.

Booking, one tap away

The booking button sits at the top, visible on every page. On a phone, keep it in a fixed bar. It can be a short form, a WhatsApp link or a booking system. A good tattoo form asks for little: the idea, the body placement, rough size and, optionally, a reference image.

Explain what happens after the message, too. "From message to tattoo" can be a four-step list: you write to us, we talk through the idea, we draw it, we set the date. For someone getting their first tattoo, knowing the steps ahead of time takes some of the nerves away.

The hard questions, answered on the site

Everyone asks the same things before their first tattoo: how much it hurts, how long it takes, how to look after it, what to do about covering an old one. Put them in a FAQ section with answers that open in place. People read them late at night, before they're ready to message you, and show up calmer. You also get fewer messages asking the same thing.

You don't need to publish prices if every piece is different. Just say what the price depends on: size, detail, placement, number of sessions.

Photos that load fast

A big gallery is also a speed problem. Two technical things make the difference:

• images in several sizes. With the srcset and sizes attributes, a phone downloads a small version instead of the desktop image, which saves data;
• lazy loading (loading="lazy") for photos further down the page. Don't lazy-load the first image, the one visible when the page opens, because that's exactly the one that has to show up fast. And set the width and height on every image so the page doesn't jump around as photos load.

The client's consent for photos

A photo of a tattoo on someone's arm or face can identify them, which makes it personal data under the GDPR. Before you post the piece on your site or on social media, get the client's consent in writing, even a saved message will do. And remember they can withdraw it at any time, as easily as they gave it; then the photo comes down.

If you'd like to see how this would look for your studio, our services page shows what we do. On how many photos to use and in what order, we also wrote about the photo gallery on your website.