The custom tattoo intake sheet template

Before you write a full reply

• Ask for two or three reference imagesTwo or three is plenty. Ask what they like about each one, because the answer tells you whether they want the subject, the style or the color palette.
• Get a photo of the placement on their own bodyA phone photo of the forearm, ribs or thigh in question shows you the real canvas, the existing ink, stretch marks and scar tissue before you size anything.
• Pin the size down in inches, not in wordsSmall and medium mean different things to any two people. Ask for a length and a width in inches, or have them mark the area with a pen and photograph it.
• Ask for a budget range in dollarsA range is fine. If the range sits far below what the piece takes, you have saved yourself an evening of drawing and an awkward conversation at the counter.
• Record availability and travel distanceNote weekdays or weekends, how far they travel and whether they can sit for a long session. Multi session pieces fail on scheduling more often than on art.
• Flag cover ups, scars and previous workAsk for a clear, well lit photo of anything you are working over. A cover up quote built from a dark phone photo is a quote you will regret in the chair.

On the consultation

• Confirm age and photo ID rules before anything elseState body art rules set the minimum age and the identification you must see. Say it plainly on the call so nobody drives across town and gets turned away.
• Ask the medical questions you would ask in the chairBlood thinners, recent procedures, pregnancy, skin conditions and known reactions. Write the answers on the sheet and keep it with the consent paperwork.
• Agree the number of sessions and the hours in eachSay clearly whether this is one four hour sitting or three. Clients assume one price and one day unless you spell out the shape of the work up front.
• Give a price band rather than a single numberQuote a range tied to hours at your rate, and name what would push it toward the top. Your cost per chair hour is the figure sitting underneath that band.
• Set the drawing timeline out loudTell them when the design will be ready and that you do not send finished artwork ahead of the session. That one sentence prevents most last minute redesign requests.

Before the stencil goes on

• Collect the deposit through your business payment channelTake it the same way you take the balance, with the studio name on the descriptor. Deposits taken through a personal payment app are the hardest to defend in a dispute.
• Have the client accept written reschedule termsPut the notice window, the forfeit rule and any single reschedule allowance in writing, and capture an accepted timestamp against it rather than a verbal yes.
• Note the drawing hours already spentWrite the hours on the sheet. If the client walks away, that line is what tells you whether the deposit actually covered the work you had already done.
• Confirm the artwork and photo termsSet out who owns the design, whether you can post healed photos, and whether the client may reproduce it. Custom work carries a copyright and the paperwork should say so.
• Hold the calendar slot only once the deposit clearsA pencil booking with no cleared deposit is not a booking. Keep the slot available to other clients until the money has actually landed in the account.

When the client leaves the chair

• Hand over printed aftercare and send the same wordingPaper gets lost and phones do not. Send the identical text so there is no argument two weeks later about what you did or did not tell them.
• State film wear time and the wash schedule in hoursGive numbers, not adjectives. Hours on the film, washes per day, and what a normally healing tattoo looks and feels like around day three.
• Say what is not normal and who to callSpreading redness, fever, weeping past the first days. Give them a number for the studio and tell them plainly when to see a doctor instead of messaging you.
• Book the touch up window before they leaveSet the date range while they are still standing at the counter. A touch up chased by message two months later usually never gets booked at all.
• Log the session in your records the same dayDate, artist, pigment batches, needle types, signed consent and the aftercare copy. That is the file an inspector opens first when they walk in.