APIs and data infrastructure for tattoo software.
Build studio websites, portfolio tools, marketplace surfaces, booking workflows, and AI agents on tattoo-specific primitives instead of stitching together scraped profiles, random CMS fields, and ungoverned image folders.
TattooAPI carries the messy parts most generic tools ignore: artist ownership, studio affiliation, portfolio attribution, rights, consent, review state, and visibility.
Now partnering with select builders
We're working with agencies, product teams, and technical operators building software for tattoo studios and artists. The goal is simple: better primitives, safer data, and products that actually fit the industry.
What builders can ship
Start with the product surface you are building.
TattooAPI is the shared primitive layer under websites, portfolio systems, discovery products, booking workflows, and agents. Pick the surface first; the same governed data model sits underneath.
Studio Websites
Build tattoo studio websites that stay connected to approved artists, portfolios, locations, booking paths, and update workflows.
Portfolio Tools
Use artist-owned portfolio records, attribution, review state, rights posture, and distribution rules instead of loose image folders.
Marketplaces & Directories
Create discovery surfaces around tattoo-specific entities: artists, studios, styles, locations, portfolio depth, and trust metadata.
AI Workflows
Give agents structured tattoo context for portfolio intake, booking triage, studio operations, and reviewed work requests.
Proof surfaces
Real products sitting on the same primitive layer.
tattoo.co, tattoo.agency, and TattooOS are proof surfaces for the same underlying model: discovery, portfolio management, studio growth, booking operations, and agent workflows built around real tattoo data.
tattoo.co
Discovery and marketplace surface
Consumer-facing discovery, style-tagged artist portfolios, geo-indexed listings, and real-time availability — all running on tattoo.dev APIs. Not a reference implementation. A live product serving real artists and clients.
tattoo.agency
Operator and growth workflows
Studio growth workflows, inquiry routing, conversion optimization, and operator dashboards — built on the same platform you'd access. Live proof that the booking and inquiry APIs hold up in production.
TattooOS
Studio modules on the same foundation
Portfolio management, booking systems, client communication, and studio operations as modular products — one API layer, multiple surfaces. Proof of the platform's breadth across the full studio lifecycle.
Built from real workflows
Defaults from tattoo shops, not generic SaaS templates.
The data model is shaped by portfolio review, artist movement, inquiry qualification, deposit protection, consent, aftercare timing, and the messy handoffs that happen inside real studios.
Portfolio proof
Build against real tattoo media, not placeholder galleries.
A tattoo platform has to organize vertical phone photos, healed-work proof, flash, artist ownership, studio affiliation, and distribution rules. These are the kinds of portfolio inputs TattooAPI is being built to normalize for websites, apps, and agents.
Real input media
Hibiscus Flower Forearm Tattoo by Mike Shapiro
Why TattooAPI is different
One primitive layer underneath every product surface.
Websites, marketplaces, portfolio tools, booking systems, and agents all need the same trusted objects: artist identity, studio affiliation, portfolio attribution, rights, consent, visibility, and review state.
Studio Websites
Build tattoo studio websites that stay connected to approved artists, portfolios, locations, booking paths, and update workflows.
Portfolio Tools
Use artist-owned portfolio records, attribution, review state, rights posture, and distribution rules instead of loose image folders.
Marketplaces & Directories
Create discovery surfaces around tattoo-specific entities: artists, studios, styles, locations, portfolio depth, and trust metadata.
AI Workflows
Give agents structured tattoo context for portfolio intake, booking triage, studio operations, and reviewed work requests.
Portfolio intelligence
From texted images to governed portfolio signals.
The next portfolio lane turns real studio intake into structured creative context without bypassing ownership, consent, or review. Builders get clean projections; private media, raw messages, and worker credentials stay behind TattooAPI governance.
SMS and MMS portfolio intake
The messaging layer stays the visible inbox. TattooAPI receives the inbound media event, classifies it, and keeps raw phone data out of public docs and projections.
Media staged with source context
Portfolio media is staged with owner, artist, source, consent, and rights context before it can become a trusted creative proof object.
AI agents for the tattoo industry
Tattoo-native agents can understand style, placement, reference material, artist attribution, and portfolio context without treating tattoo work like generic image content.
Approved portfolio record
Human or governed review decides what graduates into approved portfolio records and what remains private, blocked, or needs owner clarification.
Current posture
Read-first public API. Owner-gated writes. Review before distribution.
The public surface can describe approved portfolios. Owner-scoped write routes and worker enrichment remain gated until identity, consent, rights, and review posture are explicit.
API surface
Tattoo-specific APIs, not generic CRUD endpoints.
Expose the primitives builders actually need: artists, studios, portfolios, discovery, booking, reviews, messaging, and governed automation signals.
Artists & studios
Structured profiles with style taxonomy, travel schedules, studio affiliations, and geo-indexed identity records. Supports solo artists, multi-chair studios, and guest-artist arrangements — not one forced paradigm.
Portfolios & media
Healed-work collections, style tagging, piece metadata, and portfolio organization built for discovery and trust conversion. Portfolios are a first-class object, not a photo array bolted onto a profile.
Discovery & listings
Search-ready records indexed by city, style, artist, and availability. Powers marketplace surfaces, map layers, and category views without you reverse-engineering the tattoo data model.
Booking & inquiry flows
Inquiry capture, deposit state transitions, availability windows, and consent tracking — modeled from how real studios qualify clients, not how a generic calendar app thinks they should.
Reviews & trust
Artist quality signals, studio credibility markers, verified healed work, and tattoo-specific social proof. Trust is a first-class field in the data model — not a star rating bolted on as an afterthought.
Messaging & automation
Webhook-driven workflow triggers, follow-up state, conversation handling, and operational signals. Connect booking events to your messaging layer with clean, structured payloads — not polling.
Start in docs
Understand the trust model before you build the interface.
The quickstart, API concepts, trust model, MCP guidance, and integration paths live on docs.tattoo.dev. Start there, then request access when your product has a clear surface and approval posture.
The menu is omakase
Use the model first. Customize after you understand the rules.
The portfolio layer protects ownership and attribution. The booking layer protects studio time. The trust layer carries review, consent, and visibility. Docs explain those boundaries before any integration touches production data.
Architecture
tattoo.dev is the builder surface. TattooAPI is the control layer.
The website explains the platform, the docs explain the implementation, and TattooAPI governs the data that powers tattoo.co, studio websites, portfolio tools, and AI agents.
System of Context
Domain Ontology
Open ontology with structured tattoo entities, style taxonomies, and trust-tiered records. Every record carries a `recordState` field tracking data maturity and verification status across the corpus.
System of Work
Workflow APIs
Browserless workflow APIs built on the domain ontology — artist search, studio discovery, portfolio, booking inquiry, and trust signals. This is the layer you build on.
System of Agency
Tools & MCP Orchestration
Tattoo-specific AI tools and Model Context Protocol integration built on the stable lower layers. The docs are live at docs.tattoo.dev/mcp — connect any MCP-compatible AI client directly.
Progress with care
The craft evolves. The infrastructure has to keep up.
Tattooing sits at the intersection of trust, taste, timing, and skill. The tools that serve it need to be as serious as the work. tattoo.dev moves forward boldly, with clear migration paths — and never breaks what artists and studios already depend on.
Everyone owns their data
Artists own portfolios, reputation, and booking history. Studios own operations and client relationships. Clients own their consent records and aftercare information. Full portability, open export, no lock-in — because the people who asked us to build this are the same ones it has to protect.
Built for everyone's happiness
Artists told us admin kills creativity. Clients told us the booking process feels opaque. Studio owners told us their biggest problem is unqualified inquiries. The platform solves all three — because we talked to all three before writing a single line of API code.
Co-designed with the industry
The inquiry schema came from watching real artists qualify clients. The portfolio primitives came from how artists actually organize their work. The deposit logic came from how studios protect their time. Every field name was reviewed with working tattooers — not assumed.
Philosophy
Built on principle, not just product.
Twelve principles — written with input from artists, studio owners, and clients. Not a values page: a contract. Every API decision, field name, and default behavior traces back to one of them.
01
Respect the Ritual Above All
Technology ends where the human craft begins. tattoo.dev exists to support everything around the ritual, never to automate, commoditize, or interfere with it.
07
Power to Artists, Studios & Clients
Everyone owns their data. Full portability is non-negotiable. No vendor lock-in. Control stays with the people doing the work.
12
Build the Missing Infrastructure
We're not here to replace the artist's hand, eye, or ritual. We're here to build the plumbing — respectful, responsible, and built to last.
Build with the tattoo data model instead of inventing one.
Use the docs to understand the API surface. Request access when you are ready to build against governed tattoo primitives for websites, portfolios, discovery, booking, and agents.
Public reads first. Reviewed write paths later. Governance stays in TattooAPI.
Read model
Start with the trust model, data boundaries, and implementation docs.
Request access
Tell us what you are building and which surfaces need TattooAPI projections.
Ship safely
Public reads first. Writes stay reviewed, scoped, and policy-backed.