Inkwork is a new app for tattoo artists and the people looking for them. It gives every artist their own page and the tools to run their books, and it helps clients find an artist they can trust. It was designed and built from the ground up by DEETOE CO., and the waitlist is open now.
The problem: a whole business run out of DMs
Most tattoo artists run their business across a handful of tools that were never made for it. Booking requests come in through Instagram messages. Reference photos get lost in long threads. Quotes live in a notes app, deposits in a payment app, and client history in someone’s memory.
Clients have the opposite problem. It’s hard to tell which artists have open books, what they charge, or what their work looks like once it’s healed. Many end up choosing based on whoever answers first.
What Inkwork does
For artists
- Their own page at
inkwork.app/@name, with portfolio, healed photos, styles, prices and open dates. One link for an Instagram bio. - Real booking requests with the idea, placement, size and reference photos in one message thread.
- Design approvals: send a design, get changes or an approval, all in the app.
- A studio dashboard with today’s schedule, quotes, invoices, client notes, inventory and ink lot records.
For clients
- Search by city, style, price and who has open books, at home or on a trip.
- Compare real work and prices before reaching out.
- Message artists with reference photos, approve the design and book.
Clients pay their artist directly. Inkwork never takes a percentage; artists pay only for their plan, and there’s a free plan to start.
Free for a contact page with up to 3 photos. Page at $12/month for a full, ad-free portfolio and messages. Studio at $20/month adds bookings, schedule, quotes, invoices, client notes and inventory. Always free for clients.
Questions about this for your business?
How we built it
Inkwork is a good example of how we approach any custom software project, whether it’s for a client or for ourselves.
- Prototype first. Before writing production code, we built a clickable prototype of the whole product. That made it cheap to test ideas, cut what wasn’t needed and agree on how every screen should work.
- One codebase, every platform. Inkwork is a single app that runs on iPhone, Android and the web. Artist pages open in any browser, so clients never need to download anything to see an artist’s work.
- A modern, secure backend. Accounts, the database and real-time messaging run on a managed platform, so photos and messages arrive instantly and data stays protected.
- Launch in stages. The first release covers accounts, discovery, artist pages, booking requests, messaging with design proofs and portfolios. Studio tools follow in later stages, so real feedback shapes each one.
- Search built in. Artist pages are built to show up on Google for searches like “tattoo artist near me” in the artist’s city.
What this means for your business
Your business doesn’t need to be a tech company to have software made for the way it works. The same process behind Inkwork works for a quoting tool, a customer portal, a booking system or an internal app for your team: start with a prototype, build one version that works everywhere, and launch in stages so you see results early.
Inkwork is opening city by city across the US. Artists can join the waitlist at inkwork.app to get early access.