It doesn’t take much to confirm that Seattle is a very tattoo-friendly place. Just look around any neighborhood and you’ll likely notice a wide variety of tattoo styles and placements across diverse groups of people. Some sources list upwards of 160 active tattoo shops in the city right now, providing a huge selection of styles and placement options to fit just about any request. 

Artistic abilities are, of course, a huge part of running a tattoo business. But that barely scratches the surface of what’s needed behind the scenes to succeed, especially in a saturated market. Beyond the ability to tattoo customers effectively, business owners need to build trust with the public and their potential clients, find and retain clients, position themselves in a way that they stand out from the crowd, and strike a healthy balance between physical, emotional, and business demands. 

To get a better understanding of what it takes to operate a successful tattoo business in Seattle, I spoke with Grayson Whitmire and Lionel Vance, the tattoo couple behind Tattietown. 

SSB: Can you tell me the abridged version of your origin story?

Tattietown: The origin of how Tattietown truly came to be was during Covid 2020, when all our fellow creatives and Tattooers were in lockdown, and post-graduating college we wanted to pick up a hobby! We had a couple tattoos prior from other artists, but had friends who handpoked and gave us some lessons just for fun. Grayson picked up handpoking really quickly, and Lionel was essentially the living canvas to practice on. We quickly built a synergy between us drawing together, booking out clients, and collaborating before Grayson learned machine tattooing, and eventually taught Lionel. We were both working at grocery stores and fell into a steady incline of tattooing first ourselves, then friends, then friends of friends, and slowly built our Instagram until we could quit our jobs and get a tiny studio. We have been incrementally moving to larger studios until we helped form “Green Tulip” in 2023!

SSB: How big is your business (employee-wise) and how would you describe the space you operate out of? 

Tattietown: Our business is just the two of us and we co-run and own Tattietown together but work at a private tattoo collective with three of our friends in the Seattle Center area called “Green Tulip”. Our duo makes up one of the four entities at the larger tattoo studio. We would describe our space as eclectic and inclusive of all clientele as queer/women-owned space with varying contemporary styles of tattooing. 

SSB:  When I search your business, it looks like you primarily have a fun presence on Instagram and Tik Tok. Can you speak to how these platforms have served as a marketing tool? What kind of content have you noticed drives the highest engagement? 

Tattietown: When we first got started we focused primarily on Instagram since that is where we both would book and see tattoos from other artists we liked. We emphasize embracing our uniqueness of being a queer couple who tattoo together by truly just trying to be authentic and share that via silly videos and posting our vibrant work! When we first started Tattietown on Instagram, video wasn’t as centric to social media/booking tattoos so along the way we have incorporated adding eclectic wacky videos onto our page just to share the people behind the tattoos. We find just by being our brand of silly and not following trends by looking within instead of out, has brought us the most success. 

SSB: What’s been the biggest misconception you had about running a tattoo business before you began? Any big surprises you’ve run into over the years about the operations side of things? 

Tattietown: The biggest learning curve has been that this business isn’t just “Tattooing” since there's a lot that goes on before the tattoo! You have to make flash/customs and spend lots of time finessing and staying new and relevant with your designs, emailing and working with clients schedules, curating a safe and comforting space, and being knowledgeable about boundaries and making clients feel supported. Tattooing is a very vulnerable art form since you are often tattooing nervous clients, first timers, and/or sensitive spots and you learn how to navigate being a support system for people! 

SSB: Outside of actual tattoo sessions, what parts of owning this business require the most work and time? How do you balance the tattoo work with business logistics? 

Tattietown: Thinking of new and creative ideas and brainstorming and workshopping flash is what takes the most time for us. We truly pride ourselves in pushing the bar every single flash, and to try and outdo ourselves! This has been emphasised by years of us being in the business and having drawn hundreds of tattoos along the way. 

SSB: Why did you choose your current location and how would you describe the role your business plays in the local community? 

Tattietown: Our current location is in Seattle Center, so it is very central for our clients to get to us north or south! The city of Seattle has treated us so well, and we have created so many connections that have dug our roots deep. In the Seattle community, we really wanted to cultivate a space that was comfortable and accessible for other queer people, women, and those who don’t feel at home in other types of shop environments. 

SSB: Have you noticed any trends or evolution in Seattle tattoo culture over the years? 

Tattietown: The traditional model of a “shop boss”, or old school apprenticing has become more and more unrealistic, and an increase in self-taught tattooers have begun to replace these other avenues of getting into tattooing. There has been an increase in appointment-only small studios and private spaces/collectives versus walk-in shops. A general increase in using social media to get word out is what most artists opt for to book their clients. 

SSB: What’s the hardest part about operating in Seattle? And in contrast, what’s your favorite part? 

Tattietown: Seattle is very receptive to our style/brand of Tattietown so we are always thankful for our clients, and as time has gone on, our word of mouth for how we book clients has increased tenfold! Clients will come in and say “my partner has a tattoo from y’all and recommended you!” or “my bartender had a tattoo and gave me your info!” So whether that be community, or our longevity in making a unique style, Seattle really supports us. The most difficult part however is like most cities, just cost of living, supplies, rental space for our studio. 

SSB: You’ve billed yourself as “Seattle’s gay tattoo couple.” What’s it like to own a business as a couple? 

Tattietown: We get to create an entity beyond both of us and our crafts, so while we both have creative practices outside of tattooing, Tattietown is our creation together! We are able to lean on each other during hard times. The normal tribulations in owning a business are accentuated with the closeness of our relationship. While some decisions are hard and it took a little bit of finessing to create perfect balance, we both love our job and the betterment of our business needs both of us! 

SSB:  How do you separate your business relationship from your personal one? 

Tattietown: We make time for our private practices, so having different hobbies helps us! But we are fortunate we like the company of one another even when we work all the same hours and carpool everyday. We separate our time by either having a solo day/few hours, hanging out with friends, or working on projects individually. 

SSB: What unique skills does each of you bring to the business that the other one doesn’t? 

Tattietown: Our business is truly built on knowing how to manage the work. We both do all the roles of a tattoo artist but to varying degrees. Grayson is the primary tattooer, but draws some flash and is a beacon of great ideas for concepts and designs, and lots of the business logistics. Lionel does more backend for Tattietown, such as booking, scheduling, emailing, and drawing of designs, but still does some tattoos from time to time! Grayson has a great sense for what designs will do well/how to really drive our brands vision, and Lionel has an eye for detail with our flash/customs. The balance works for us and is 100% collaborative, and we like that about this job! We each have a say and a hand in all aspects of our business, so we can have no filter to edit and thus create the best work possible. 

 What’s the best way for potential clients to book with you? 

The best way to book with us is to follow us on Instagram @tattietown, where you can see us post our flash releases/next open books, or email us to stay in the loop! We book out every couple of months when it coincides with a new flash being dropped! That is when we put a jotform in our bio to apply for old or new flash (we have hundreds of designs in our archive), and when custom inquiries can be submitted! A newsletter is being crafted too, for clients who do not use Instagram and that will be up and running soon! We love tattooing single designs, doing bundles for more than one, or doing tandem appointments for friends and/or couples, etc!