Technology investors will always ask founders why now is the right time for their innovation to take off for good.
I witnessed the necessity of timing conviction as I worked at Europe’s consumer VC firm Heartcore. Knowing why now helps us go beyond trends and stick through years of uncertainty and inevitable setbacks.
Figuring out why Tattoo Creators are redefining their category now led me to question everything, talk to creators and their fans, change my mind, and eventually start my own tattooing project and the Flashh pilot community.
Today, we uncover where tattooing’s at and where it’s heading. How big it’s become, how fast it’s growing, and why it’s an enduring phenomenon beyond the trends. We start digging into how Creator Tattooing took over the category and its implications for tattooing’s future.
It’s been an exercise in thinking straight. I hope you come out with renewed ideas and the readiness to participate in making tattooing mutually rewarding for anyone as it gains momentum and hype.
Why Tattoo Creators now?
TL;DR
- Throughout the 2010s — Enabling technologies reshuffle tattooing’s established forces. Youtube tutorials, Amazon tattoo supplies, and Instagram’s long-tail fundamentally transform tattooing’s value chain. Tattoo Creators enter the category, welcomed by established forces’ resistance to change.
- Lately — Tattooing reaches a critical mass, with unprecedented exposure and pervasiveness worldwide. ~1 in 2 American and European Millennials have tattoos. The Millennial cohort enters its prime influence years and uncovers tattoos in the workplace.
- Today — Tattooing’s at an inflection point: Cultural buy-in reaches new heights as tattooing echoes next normal Zeitgeist, Millennial’s quest for identity, and Gen Z’s aspiration for singularity.
- Onwards — How might we make tattooing mutually rewarding for anyone as it enters its phygital age? High transaction costs and congestion lead to growing informal behaviors like home tattooing while the Creator landscape opens new opportunities online.
Ten years of tech and value chain reshuffle
Throughout the 2010s, enabling technologies reshuffle tattooing’s established forces. Youtube tutorials, Amazon tattoo supplies, and Instagram long-tail dynamics fundamentally transform tattooing’s value chain. Tattoo Creators enter the category, welcomed by established forces’ resistance to change.
Tutorials and tattoo supplies commoditize, but practical training and apprenticeship don’t. Mentorship from a traditional apprenticeship remains hard to get, with uncertain outcomes. For many creators, informal solo practical training is the only route. Newcomers face practical and ethical issues besides longer feedback cycles. They may replace mentor feedback with peer feedback, or even solely client feedback.
Ten years into Instagram-first distribution, tattoo creators go from local to global. Global exposure from Instagram makes it possible for tattooers to focus on growing their unique styles. Just like live musicians, they tour around the world to meet their local enthusiasts and fans often travel to get a tattoo from their favorite artists.
Tattooers become Creators. Fans come for their unique work, personality, and worldview. Besides, they can leverage most Creators’ opportunities — from content to merch to NFTs — . However, Tattoo Creators have offline constraints that set them apart from other digital entrepreneurs.
Despite an apparent explosion in styles, the latent demand for creator tattooing is currently stumbling upon local constraints. There’s a decoupling between digital distribution and the real-world delivery capacity of tattooers. Both superstar and long-tail creators drag more demand than they’re able to serve.
Critical mass: 1 in 2 Millenials have tattoos in 2021
Lately, tattooing reached a critical mass with unprecedented exposure and pervasiveness worldwide. ~1 in 2 American and European Millennials have tattoos. The Millennial cohort enters its prime influence years and uncovers tattoos in the workplace.
Reality check: tattooing entered normality twenty years ago, in the early 2000s, with Miami Ink, Rihanna, and stringent hygiene rules. The underground and experimental era of the 1960s-1990s culminated in the midst of the New York City ban of 1961. Those days were over twenty years ago.
~ 1 in 2 American and European Millennials has tattoos in 2020. Surveys (Ipsos, Harris Poll, Dalia Research) typically find more than 3/4 of tattooed respondents have more than one, with a mean of four. Respondents are found overwhelmingly happy with their choice (read: no regrets).
Tattooing reaches an unprecedented billion dollars and global scale, growing ~10% YoY according to top-down market sizing estimates. Not accounting for the shadow and informal transactions. Gender, education, urbanity, political persuasion, or profession doesn’t seem to meaningfully factor into the decision to get a tattoo.
Inflection point and long-lasting cultural buy-in
Today, tattooing’s at an inflection point: Cultural buy-in reaches new heights as tattooing echoes next normal Zeitgeist, Millennial’s quest for identity, and Gen Z’s aspiration for singularity.
Millennials’ self-awareness, identity, and experience quests have brought tattooing to its social tipping point. Half of Millennials have at least one in the US, now uncovering them in the workplace. They’re the biggest cohort in US history, moving into their prime spending and influence years. Their context is marked by globalization and the emergence of the Internet. Questioning and self-awareness characterize behaviors at the cohort’s scale. They favor multidimensional experiences to brands.
Gen Zers are stepping a step further in individuality manifestation as it seeks singularity. The incoming generation celebrates singularities, diversity, and weirdness without filters. They’re anchoring themselves in the offline world of atoms on top of their digital aliases. Crypto art doesn’t ring the end of IRL meaningful experiences. In the offline world, Gen Zers buy into standing out and experiences that enrich their daily lives: collaborative, singularity-manifesting, and ethics-anchored.
Self-care, appetite for tangible experiences, and loss of trust in the establishment define our new normal. The mistrust and resentment towards institutions and the widening social gap have accelerated amidst the crisis. We feel less pressured about conforming to appearances when they work fully or partly remote. As a result, tattooers face a boom in inbound inquiries. Professionals have been used to abide by strict hygiene rules for decades. There’s nothing new under the tattooing sun when it comes to post-pandemic hygiene guidelines.
From informal behaviors to mutually defining tattooing for anyone
How might we make tattooing mutually rewarding for anyone as it enters its Creator age? High transaction costs and congestion lead to growing informal behaviors like home tattooing while the Creator landscape opens new opportunities online.
Imbalances between scarce differentiated offer vs. fast-growing demand result in individual opportunities and emergent behaviors locally
- High transaction costs: finding an artist and ensuring mutual fit and availability takes somewhere between two weeks and several months, with risks of dropping out in the middle of the process for both parties.
- Congestion: difficult inbound management for creators and month-long waiting lines for clients due to too much demand
- Participants’ incentives: in a context of high-demand and difficult access to practical education, creators increasingly tattoo at home in their early days
Given the growing number of tattoos done every day, it’s a problem for all of us that creators are neither enough in number nor armed to get started properly.
Tattoo Creators are driving the category’s growth. In a time when knowledge workers are quitting stable jobs, it’s worth noting that newcomers needn’t relate to conventional tattoo culture. They may come from architecture, graphic design, or simply drawing as a hobby. They’re unapologetic about breaking away from the apprenticeship path. They rely on tutorials, a few peers, and power clients they build a strong connection with. They monetize Instagram audiences that needn’t be bigger than 1,000 followers. Tattooing’s become one of the most meaningful opportunities to transact humanely with one’s 100 true fans.
Only now do we realize the amplitude of informal behaviors like tattooing from home. Whereas apprenticeships get harder to access, practicing at home appears like a handy solution. Self-teaching means progressing fast and independently, even when it’s just about tattooing oranges.
But what’s problematic with the solo route? Lack of mentorship, peer connection, and ultimately true professional growth. The benefits just don’t make up for the drawbacks in the long run. So it’s time to stop shaming home tattooing and instead help each other thrive.
Up, and to the right
Let’s connect, join forces, and help each other thrive
Wanna connect with fellow passionate tattoo creators?
👉📩 Say Hi! pauline@flashh.co ✨
psst: Keep exploring creator tattooing
