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InkUs is a platform designed to help clients discover and connect with tattoo artists through verified portfolios and real-world context. The challenge was not speed, but trust. Discovery systems that optimize for volume over fit create irreversible outcomes in a permanent medium.
This engagement focused on shaping a discovery experience that protected judgment, preserved artist integrity, and aligned incentives across clients, artists, and studios.
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KEY OUTCOMES
Tattoo discovery carries a higher level of responsibility than most digital products. Decisions are permanent, personal, and culturally grounded. Yet discovery was largely happening on platforms optimized for speed, visibility, and engagement rather than accuracy or fit.
Users relied on Instagram feeds, Pinterest boards, and Google image searches to form ideas, then navigated fragmented paths to find artists capable of executing them. For artists, discovery depended on inconsistent tagging, scattered portfolios, and surface-level exposure.
InkUs identified this gap early. But like many first-to-market platforms, the initial experience borrowed heavily from generic social UX patterns. Discovery moved too fast. Matching happened too early. Artist representation lacked nuance. Trust had not yet been earned.
Founded by tattoo artist Joe Ankave, InkUs emerged from firsthand frustration with how fragmented tattoo discovery had become, a challenge later recognized beyond the tattoo community as the platform gained wider attention in the tech and product space.
As profiled by The Silicon Review.
WHAT WE DID
InkUs did not have a feature problem. It had a decision-quality problem.
The platform needed to support two very different perspectives without flattening either. Tattoo enthusiasts were seeking clarity, confidence, and direction. Professional artists were protecting craft, time, and reputation.
When discovery prioritizes speed over understanding, both sides lose. Incorrect matches are not minor UX failures. They create wasted time, misaligned expectations, and broken trust, all unacceptable in a space defined by permanence.
The challenge was not to make discovery faster. It was to make it responsible.
As Creative Director of UX, my role was to introduce structure, clarity, and decision discipline across the product. InkUs needed to slow down before it could scale.
Tattoo discovery is not about volume. It is about fit. The experience had to help users think before it helped them browse, and help artists be represented accurately before they were surfaced widely.
That reframing shifted the product from a generic discovery tool into a trust-driven system.
WHAT WE DID
Execution focused on translating strategic constraints into system behavior. Patterns that preserved judgment advanced. Those who encouraged premature selection were intentionally removed.
Tagging and filtering were redesigned with direct input from professional tattoo artists. Styles were treated as overlapping and evolving rather than rigid categories, improving matching accuracy and artist trust.
Location-based discovery was protected as a foundational system, ensuring relevance and accountability. Broader exploration was supported without diluting local trust.
The product flow was restructured to support idea formation before artist outreach. Users could collect references, upload sketches, and clarify direction before matching, reducing misalignment and wasted conversations.
InkUs required clarity early. Discovery systems shape behavior long before conversion, and missteps at this stage are costly to reverse. I led product vision and UX strategy, defining the decision framework that governed discovery, representation, and pacing across the platform.
Strategy and UX execution were developed in collaboration with a UX designer under my creative and strategic direction. Design intent was translated into clear requirements and validated against real studio behavior to ensure alignment from concept through delivery.
WHAT WE DID
Once discovery aligned with how users and artists actually make decisions, behavior changed. Artists engaged more confidently. Users spent more time clarifying ideas before outreach. Matches became more intentional and productive.
InkUs shifted from a fast discovery tool into a platform built around judgment, accuracy, and trust.
RESULTS
InkUs was reshaped to serve a category where decisions cannot be undone, and trust is earned slowly. By restructuring discovery around intent, accuracy, and artist representation, the platform reduced noise and improved decision quality on both sides of the marketplace. The result is a system designed to respect craft, protect time, and help users move forward with confidence rather than regret.
Creative marketplaces are shaped as much by decision quality as by discovery mechanics. This case study explores how experience design influences judgment and trust in environments where creative choices carry lasting consequences.
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