Fresno tech company connect tattoo artists, clients with app

Channelle Charest works in tech, with a facet hustle at a tattoo store in downtown Fresno, although at occasions it’s usually felt like issues have been the opposite approach round.

“I used to be pondering: Do I get a private assistant to assist me handle scheduling and issues?” says Charest, chief working officer at Bitwise Industries and an artist at Faithful and True Tattoo Studio.

She knew that know-how may assist streamline the method of really getting shoppers into the chair, however it didn’t exist for the tattoo business — but.

Final week, Charest and enterprise accomplice Greg Goforth launched Tatstat, a free cell app for tattoo artists and their shoppers.

The appliance permits these on the lookout for a tattoo to seek for artists of their space and instigate an preliminary dialog concerning the kind, model and placement. They’ll then ebook a session — in particular person or nearly — and ship reference photos and different messages to the artist.

“Getting a tattoo is an expertise, and it must be an expertise during, from the primary message, till you’re getting the ink in your pores and skin,” says Tatstat product officer (and tattoo artist) Carley Feil.

The business has modified from the times while you walked into a store and picked a tattoo from as set of drawings on the wall. Now, dozens of potential shoppers could be reaching out at one time throughout a number of platforms (Instragram DMs, Fb messages, texts, emails, and so forth.).

“It may be fairly overwhelming for tattoo artists,” Feil says.

With Tatstat, every artist has a profile that may be linked throughout web sites and social media, funneling potential shoppers to a single spot the place they will set appointments, acquire deposits and start collaborating on art work.

Appointments within the app will be synced with an artist’s private calendar to keep away from any overlaps. That’s a game-changer says Charest, who provides that she doubled her enterprise in six months utilizing a beta model of the app.

The unique code for Tatstat was leftover from a salon-scheduling app Goforth had labored on. Such functions are pretty customary in salons as of late however haven’t be utilized the tattoo business. In 2018, Charest and Goforth pitched the idea on the annual tech competitors 59 Days of Code, the place they received $5,000 in seed cash they used to constructed out the app and add new options.

And the corporate will proceed to tweak the app as extra artists come on board, Feil says. It at the moment has 140 registered artists from throughout the county. Already, the corporate has six months of updates within the works and is on the brink of rent a full-time developer.

The tattoo business can have a little bit of “cool youngsters” vibe, Charest says. It will probably really feel intimidating. Tatstat is about creating quick access for all artists and shoppers, particularly lady and other people of coloration and “individuals who don’t get to expertise the business in its fullest,” she says.

“Tattoos are for everybody. We’re making an attempt to eradicating that barrier, no matter that could be.”

Joshua Tehee covers breaking information for The Fresno Bee, with a deal with leisure and a heavy emphasis on the Central Valley music scene. You’ll be able to see him share the world’s high leisure choices Friday mornings on KMPH’s “Nice Day” and skim extra of his work right here.