Tattoo artists use Instagram to share photos of their work and connect with other tattoo artists around the world. Instagram can also be a great way to promote your business and connect with potential clients.

For tattoo artists the key to using Instagram most effectively to get new clients is to identify the target market and focus engagement in your local area to find them

By now we all know that Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. According to a study by Statista, Instagram has over 300 million active monthly users, making it one of the most popular platforms for sharing photos and videos.

This makes Instagram a powerful tool for direct marketing in your local area and getting the attention of the clients you most want to meet yet many tattoo artists are not using Instagram as effectively as they could.

For many tattoo artists Instagram as used is a portfolio to showcase their work and network with other artists. They may get new clients from Instagram engagement through word of mouth and popularity but there are ways to use the platform that can be highly effective in greatly increasing the engagement from the population in your immediate area, closest to your shop. This is where most of your clients will come from and where the majority of your social media engagement should be focused. Keep reading to find out how to optimize this engagement.

How to Use Instagram to Find New Tattoo Clients

Most tattoo artists use Instagram with a “Spray and Pray” Approach. In other words they post content in the hopes of reaching the widest audience possible. This is not necessarily a bad idea but I am going to offer a different approach; an approach that optimizes for the most amount of engaged and steady clients rather than JUST the MOST amount of followers.

That is the crucial difference. Its fine to want lots of followers but how many of those followers convert into new business? In business philosophy there is the adage of the 80/20 rule which states that 80% of total productivity will come from 20% of total effort. This also implies that your efforts in generating new clients will be most effective if it focuses on finding the 20% of followers who will account for the largest amount (80%+) of your business and income. In terms of Tattoo artists and their Tattoo shops this means scouring the local area.

Focus your energy on finding the smaller numbers of dedicated followers who want to be new clients. Dont get distracted by the prestige of big numbers. Those big numbers don’t mean anything for your business!! 100 dedicated followers who live close to you and get regular tattoo work are worth 1000x more than 100,000 followers who barely interact with your posts, if at all

Instagram can be a powerful tool for accomplishing this goal. Here are a few simple steps for using Instagram that will utilize that power for your tattoo business

Identify local businesses in your area that have Instagram pages. Any business will work but you may have the best luck with smaller establishments, especially those that may have some cross over with a tattoo shop like small clothing stores, coffee shops, music venues, etc.
Scroll their profiles to find popular content. It doesnt have to be super huge posts. You aren’t looking for big numbers just the larger numbers proportionate to the follower count of the profile.
Open the list of people who have clicked like on these posts. Clicking the likes under the post will open the list of every user that has like the post.
Start checking each user to see if they are local to the area. Click on a user and check their profile. Sometimes they will have their location listed in their bio. If they don’t you can scroll through a few of their pics to see if any of them have been location tagged. Often users have their profiles set to private so just follow them anyway, just in case
Follow users who are local residents, Like and Comment on their content. This is the most important of all the steps. This is the first thing the Instagram algorithm needs to see in order for it to start deciding which users should see which content. Let me restate that because it is so important. You need to train the Instagram algorithm to match your engagement with the people in your area. These are your potential future clients. These are the people that you most want to see your work. Instagram reads your engagement as the first part of that process.
Try and notice who follows you back. make a note to occasionally check their page, like and comment. This step is not absolutely necessary but it does reinforce the connection, makes it more likely that that user will engage with you in return and most importantly gives the algorithm another reason to show your content to that user.

Some notes on this process.

That might all seem like a lot of work and it is. At first. The idea is to make big pushes like this semi-regularly, not necessarily to make this another full-time job. In fact, If you did this process too much Instagram may actually think you are spamming and restrict your content in some way.

If you can work on this process for a few minutes, periodically throughout the day, you can accomplish a lot. In an ideal world you even have someone you trust with your account info, who can help you.

How To Continue Promoting Your Tattoo Business

You could do the above steps and leave it at that but there are a few things you can do to further strengthen your connection with potential clients in your area and continue to promote your tattoo business.

Instagram has vastly expanded its arsenal of features since the old days of just posting pictures. In order to get noticed by a large, global audience, it can be a gruesome task to use all of them in a way that gets you noticed and promoted by the algorithm.

Thankfully, as tattoo artists looking for new clients in your local area, you don’t have to worry about that amount of work. Lets talk about what features you can use, and how to focus them in a way that will help you find new clients.

Post videos of your work. As of this writing Instagram greatly favors video content using their feature called “Reels”. Reels are Instagram’s response to the popularity of Tik Tok and the wildly popular short format videos. In order to get more traction with the clients you are trying to engage with you should utilize this feature primarily. Don’t get stuck on making masterpiece videos. While tattooing, take a short video of the work. Combine that with some still shots of the process from drawing to completion, then add in a trending or humorous audio track. OR instead of just taking a picture of the completed piece, take a short video and post that as a reel.
Use Instagram Stories. Show behind-the-scenes of your work and daily life. This is a great way to give potential clients a glimpse of your process and what it's like to get a tattoo from you. Share personal moments as well. While its not a great idea to mix a variety of types of content in your main feed, Instagram stories can be a great place to add some personal connection with your clients and further encourage their interest and engagement.
Engage with other users. As discussed earlier, when looking for new clients it is important to follow, like and comment on the content that is being posted by users in your area. These are potential clients and by strengthening your engagement with them you are training the algorithm to push your content to them. You can also Like and comment on other tattoo artists' work, who work in your area. This might help you get noticed by potential clients who are browsing through tattoo artists' profiles. It also shows the algorithm that you are not just a spam bot and you are creating a good user experience.
Use hashtags. Hashtags are not dead! They don’t have a super huge effect at the global audience level but at the local level they can still be effective. Research hashtags that are relevant to both your work as a tattoo artist and to the local community of businesses, regional features, etc and use them when appropriate.
Use geotags. Instagram is used as a tool to find local businesses so, If you want to attract local clients, be sure to use geotags when posting photos of your work. This will help your work to show up in searches for tattoo artists in your area.
Promote special deals. Use Instagram to promote any special deals or discounts that you are offering on tattoos. Use Stories and Reels rather than images. Think of creative offers and creative ways to get people to qualify. If you are feeling very ambitious, think of ways you can partner with other local business to boost each others clientele and boost the Instagram engagement for each business as well. Don’t over-use this so you don’t seem desperate. Giving a sense of exclusivity is very helpful. Make a point to mention that the deal is an “Instagram exclusive offer”. Use calls to action, requiring that users must “Like, Share and Follow” in order to qualify for the deal or giveaway.

How do I Get Good Instagram Clients?

There is a huge difference between any old tattoo client who randomly walks through your door and GOOD tattoo clients.

What defines a good client can vary from tattoo artist to tattoo artist but they will all share the characteristic of being dedicated to your services and respectful of your time and skills.

There are a few things you can do to get good Instagram clients. First, and most importantly, you will need to put in the time to research what type of clients would be interested in your services. Then, you will need to create a strong branding strategy. You will also need to create high-quality images and videos that resonate with your target audience. Finally, you will need to be able to market yourself effectively to the people you most want to attract to your business

How to Find the Target Market for Your Tattoo Shop

One of the most powerful things you can do to find the optimum clients who are most likely to become dedicated consumers is to identify your target audience. This is not a complex task but there are some subtleties to it.

What are the demographics of the target market?

The more you know about who uses the types of services you offer the more likely you will be able to find those people and attract them to your business. Click here to read a study by PubMed about tattoo demographics. On that page there are also a number of other articles written about the demographics of tattoo collectors. This can provide valuable insight into your target audience. Statista also has some valuable information. Continue this research based on who you think will be most likely to seek out your tattoo business

Here are a few tips to help you find the target market for your tattoo shop:

Define your tattoo style. Are you going to specialize in a certain tattoo style? This can help you narrow down your target market. For example, if you're going to specialize in traditional Japanese tattoos, your target market will likely be people interested in that style of tattoo. But you dont have to limit yourself to a specific style or subject matter. You can think generally in terms of the type of person who would want to get tattooed by you or even better who are the types of people you would most like to engage with. In other words are there similar interests you and your potential clients may have? Think in terms of hobbies, activities, political ideals etc.
Consider your location. Where your tattoo shop is located will also play a role in who your target market will be. If you're in a city with a large student population, for example, your target market might be people in their late teens and early twenties.
Do some market research. Once you have an idea of who your target market might be, it's time to do some market research. Using the process outlined earlier of following and engaging with new potential clients, pay attention to who follows you back. Take note of what their interests are and what type of people they seem to be. This can give you immensely powerful insights that will help you find the MOST dedicated clients

How Do Tattoo Artists Get Lots Followers on Instagram?

In spite of all of the above you might wonder how to get the big big numbers of global users. Click here to read an interview with an Instagram exec that describes the full range of Instagram features and how they should be used in order to maximize engagement and get the algorithm to promote your content to the global audience. Be prepared for a huge amount of work. It can be done and there are plenty of examples of artists who have achieved the big big numbers but it is hard to do. Sometimes artists just get lucky but if you are not one of the chosen few and you are not using the features to full effect, you will need to put in a lot of work.

There are a few easy things tattoo artists can do to increase their number of followers on Instagram even if it desnt reach the monster numbers. A simple way to do this is to post content that is interesting and engaging, so your followers will want to see it. Another tip is to post images of your work in progress. This will give your followers an idea of your work and what kind of style you have. Additionally, make use of hashtags to target specific audiences and draw in potential followers. Finally, engage with your followers and answer their questions. Doing so will show that you are interested in your followers and that you are invested in your craft.

What Are Some of the Challenges That Tattoo Artists Face When Using Instagram?

If you're a tattoo artist, chances are you're using Instagram to showcase your work. And while Instagram can be a great tool for promoting your art, it can also be a bit of a minefield. Here are some of the challenges you might face when using Instagram as a tattoo artist.

The algorithm. The Instagram algorithm can be a real pain, and it can be hard to get your work seen by potential clients if your posts don't show up in their feed.
The competition. There are a lot of tattoo artists out there, and everyone is fighting for a piece of the pie. It can be tough to stand out from the crowd. It can be ESPECIALLY tough to feel confident in the face of so much impressive work by highly skilled artists. It is important to maintain perspective. You only see the final results. Don’t compare your shortcomings with the final results of others. Everyone else is making mistakes and feeling insecure as well. But social media only shows the best shiny polished final product. Not all the heartache and effort it took to create it.
The trolls. Unfortunately, there will always be people who just want to cause trouble. If you're not prepared to deal with the occasional troll, Instagram can be a frustrating place. Fortunately this doesnt happen quite as much until you start reaching the stratospheric numbers and by then its easier to ignore.
The pressure. It can be easy to feel like you need to constantly be posting new and amazing work. Don’t let this bog you down. ITS OK TO TAKE BREAKS. If you need to, print that out and post it where you can see it all the time. Remember: For tattoo artists the most powerful way to use Instagram is by focusing energy on the smaller but more dedicated followers who want to be new clients. Don’t get distracted by the prestige of big numbers. Those big numbers don’t mean anything for your business!! Remember: 100 dedicated followers who live close to you and get regular tattoo work are worth 1000x more than 100,000 followers who wont do anything more than click like on something you posted. If they even do that much.