Tattoo studio software: deposits, consent, and a booking page that fills the chair

Most studios don't have a booking problem — they have a DM problem. The enquiries arrive fine; they just arrive as forty unstructured conversations an artist has to triage between sessions. Dates get double-offered, deposits get promised and forgotten, and the consent form is a photocopy signed on a clipboard thirty seconds before the stencil goes on. Good tattoo studio software fixes all of it in an afternoon.

Want to see it first? Our tattoo studio software page has a 1:06 video of a day at a made-up studio: a booking from its own booking page, a deposit, a consent form signed on a phone, aftercare and commission.

Setup tutorial

Step 1 — A booking page that answers the DMs

List your session types — consultation, flash, half-day, full-day — with durations and artists. The page goes in your Instagram bio, and enquiries become structured bookings instead of chat threads. With the Pro Storefront add-on (included in your free trial), your booking page gets a gallery of healed work that you upload, reorder and remove yourself.

Want to vet projects first? Online bookings confirm straight away, so make a consultation the bookable service and book the sitting yourself after you've talked.

Step 2 — Deposits that actually stick

Turn on "Deposit required" once, as a fixed amount or a percentage of the service price. With card payments connected, clients pay it when they book, and the rest is paid on the day. The no-show maths in tattooing is brutal: a bailed full-day sitting isn't an inconvenience, it's a day of income gone. A deposit turns "I forgot" into a decision that costs money.

For the honest forgetters, reminders go out the day before by email or text, and the booking confirmation includes a link clients can use to reschedule within your rules. Write your cancellation policy once, and it's shown on the booking page before the client pays. More ideas in our guide to reducing no-shows.

Step 3 — Consent signed before the chair

Build the consent and medical-history form once — allergies, medications, age confirmation, the works — with a draw-to-sign signature field and a body diagram where clients mark the placement. Send it with the booking confirmation; clients sign on their phone the night before. Tick "Required before check-in" and the client's record flags the form until it's signed, or ask for it inside the booking flow itself, so it's signed before the slot is held.

The signed form lives on their record permanently, which is exactly where you want it if a question ever comes up.

Step 4 — The day itself

Check the day's sessions on the calendar. Open the booking to see what's paid and what's left. Take cash and press Mark collected, press Charge on POS to send the balance to the till, or, once card payments are connected, let the client pay by QR on their phone.

Log session notes on the client record: placement, inks, touch-up plans. And set each artist's commission percentage once, with a different rate on any service if you need it. The commission report counts sales rung up on the Wemu POS with the artist tagged on the line (a balance taken on the booking itself doesn't count toward it yet), so payday isn't a night on the calculator. Our commission guide covers how to pick the numbers.

Step 5 — Aftercare and the second tattoo

Switch on a follow-up email the day after each sitting is marked complete, and rewrite it as your aftercare notes, with a link to your aftercare sheet. Then set a reminder on the client's record to check in once it's healed, say in six weeks — which is precisely when people start thinking about the next piece. Studios treat follow-up as politeness; it's actually the cheapest marketing they own.

Why Wemu fits studios

Frequently asked questions