Tattoo Booking Software for Consults and Long Sessions
Clients send their idea with the booking, you approve the requests you want to take on, and the session is held once the deposit has cleared.
Updated 22 October 2026
Why do tattoo artists lose whole days to no-shows and DM bookings?
A no-show on a six-hour session is a day you can't sell twice. When bookings run through Instagram DMs there is no confirmation, no reminder and no record of what was agreed: some clients skip the consultation, others go quiet the night before. Tymeslot keeps the consultation and the session apart, lets you read each idea before you accept it, and takes the deposit before the date is held. Confirmations and reminders go out without you.
Why a tattoo diary needs more than a calendar link
A typical booking link offers 30 minutes to anyone who clicks. A tattoo session is four to eight hours, needs a design you have agreed to draw, and should not exist until money is down. So artists fall back on DMs, a bank transfer for the deposit and a spreadsheet of who has paid.
Tymeslot covers that path in one place. A short consultation is free and open to anyone. Sessions can require your approval, so a request for a style you don't do never reaches your diary, and on Pro a fixed deposit is paid through your own Stripe account before the booking is confirmed. If you decline a request after the client has paid, the deposit is refunded in full.
Everything tattoo artists need. Nothing they don't.
Consultations and Sessions Kept Apart
A short consultation and a long session are separate meeting types with their own lengths, rules and links. Keep the sessions private, so only clients you have talked to ever see a full-day slot.
Approve Requests Before They Are Booked
Turn on approval for sessions and each booking arrives as a request with the client's idea, while the slot is held for them. Accept it and it is confirmed; decline it and the date opens again.
Deposits Refunded if You Decline
On Pro, the client pays a fixed deposit with the request, such as €100 on a half day. Decline a piece that is not for you, or let the request lapse, and Tymeslot refunds the deposit in full without a bank transfer.
Prep Notes Clients Read First
Write your prep notes into the session description: eat beforehand, no alcohol the night before, wear something that leaves the placement free. They show when the client books and travel with the calendar invitation.
Days You Can Hold
Cap full-day sessions at one a day, add a buffer for cleaning down and setting up, and require days of notice so nobody books a back piece for tomorrow.
Guest Spots and Travelling Clients
Clients who fly in for a piece see times in their own time zone, and a video consultation gets its link when it is booked. Block the weeks you guest at another studio as time off at home.
See the difference
Without Tymeslot
With Tymeslot
Common scheduling scenarios
How do tattoo artists manage the path from consultation to session?
A tattoo takes more than one booking. Keeping consultations and sessions as separate meeting types shows where each client is, and stops anyone booking a full day before you have talked.
- Create a 30-minute "Design consultation", free, in the studio or by video, open to anyone on your page.
- Create private session types (half day, full day) that do not appear on your public page; send their link after the consultation.
- On Pro, ask for the idea, the placement and size, whether it is a cover-up, and a link to reference images in a shared folder or on Pinterest.
- Turn on approval for the sessions, so each request waits for you to accept it.
How do tattoo artists prevent no-shows on long sessions?
A no-show on a half-day session is half a day's income gone. A deposit and good reminders close off the easy ways out.
- On Pro, set a fixed deposit on each session type, such as €100 for a half day and €200 for a full day.
- Ask clients to tick an acknowledgement on the booking form that they are 18 or over and will bring photo ID to the session.
- Send reminders three days and one day before: the first leaves time to rest and arrange the day off, the second repeats the prep notes.
- State in the session description whether the deposit comes off the final price and when you treat it as forfeit; Tymeslot shows your terms but does not enforce them.
How do tattoo artists run a flash day or a guest spot?
Flash days and guest spots turn the usual pattern around: short pieces booked first come, first served, or a few days in another city with clients who only know you online.
- For a flash day, create a private 45-minute meeting type on a schedule open only on that weekday, mark the surrounding weeks as time off, then post the link when you announce the sheet.
- Leave approval off for flash, so slots go to whoever books first, and cap the type at eight bookings for the day.
- For a guest spot, save the other studio as a location and give it a session type of its own, on a schedule whose time off closes every date outside the visit.
- Block the same dates as time off on your home schedule, so nobody books you in your own studio while you are away.
See Tymeslot in action
A starter setup for tattoo artists
| Meeting type | Duration | Buffer | Minimum notice | Bookable ahead | Payment at booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design consultation | 30 min | 15 min | 1 day | 30 days | None |
| Tattoo session, half day | 240 min | 30 min | 3 days | 180 days | €100 deposit at booking |
| Tattoo session, full day | 420 min | 30 min | 3 days | 180 days | €200 deposit at booking |
Intake questions
- Describe your idea: the subject, the style and anything it must include.
- Where on the body, and roughly how big?
- Is it a new piece, a cover-up or a continuation of existing work?
- A link to reference images.
Both session types need approval and share one schedule with three days' notice and a six-month horizon, since big pieces are booked well ahead; the consultation has its own. Skin conditions, medication and the consent form stay on paper at the studio, signed on the day.
Tymeslot compared with Fresha, Acuity and Calendly
Against Fresha, Acuity Scheduling and Calendly, Tymeslot's difference for a tattoo artist is the approval step: the client describes the piece and pays the deposit, and nothing is booked until you accept. The rows are the ones that carry a tattoo booking: the deposit, the questions about idea, placement and size, and where those details are stored. Calendly includes booking questions even on its free plan, and Acuity takes payment through Square or PayPal as well as Stripe, so an artist who needs either of those may prefer them.
| Feature | Tymeslot | Fresha | Acuity | Calendly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit or payment at booking | Pro: €100 to €200 deposit per sitting | Yes: deposit or full prepayment, with Fresha Payments | Yes, on all plans: Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo | Paid plans only: Stripe or PayPal at booking |
| Custom intake questions | Pro: idea, placement, size and references | Yes: custom forms sent when an appointment is booked | Yes, on all plans: custom client forms | Yes: up to 10 questions per event type, on all plans |
| Hosting in the EU | Yes: client ideas stored in the EU | Partly: data may be processed outside the UK and EEA | No: data is stored in US data centres | No: data is stored in US data centres |
Sources checked 5 October 2026.
How much time could you save?
A rough estimate, not a promise.
100
minutes saved per week
86.7
hours saved per year
€10,404
annual value of saved time
Which calendar and video apps do tattoo artists use with Tymeslot?
Start free, upgrade when you're ready
The free consultation and approval of every session request work on Free. The deposits in this setup, €100 for a half day and €200 for a full day, and the questions about the piece need Pro (€9/month), which most artists who book long sittings will want from the start.
Free
€0 / month
Pro
€9 / month