Tattoo flash days are an important part of tattoo culture. They are usually 1-day events where tattoo artists offer simple flash tattoos for a low rate.
While flash days can bring in a lot of cash quickly, the real purpose of them is to get lots of new clients through the door so that they come back later for larger custom tattoos.
Throwing a successful flash day takes some planning. In this article, we’ll break down exactly how flash days work - and how to throw your own flash event - including:
How to Run a Tattoo Flash Event
2-3+ Weeks BEFORE Your Flash Day
Once you have a day chosen for your flash day, it’s important to get the word out and show all available tattoo designs.
Design Your Flash Sheets
Flash tattoos are small designs. As a tattoo artist, you’ll want to offer clients your own designs, just keep them simple so they can be tattooed quickly and easily.
Post Every Day on Social Media
Posting on social media every day about your flash day will make sure people have time to find out about the event and to take a look at the flash tattoo designs you’ll be offering.
We recommend posting pictures or videos of:
Make sure to announce the price for a flash tattoo.
It’s also important to get a head count of people who are planning to come to your tattoo shop for the event. The easiest way to do this is to ask people to comment on your post if they want to join.
Getting people to comment the flash tattoo they want or which designs they’d like to see on your flash sheets for the event are good ways to get your post on more people’s social media feed.
If it looks like there are a lot of people coming for your flash day, you might not be able to handle all the work by yourself. To avoid super long lines - and having to turn away people you don’t have time for - reach out to other artists for help.
Pro Tip:
Make sure to check out the artist’s work before allowing them to come help you out.
Note:
We recommend getting a friend or two to man the front desk and take pictures throughout the day.
Prep Your Merch
Merch is a great way to get your name out there. Make sure you have plenty of merch on hand for people who want to buy it after they get a tattoo.
We recommend putting your logo and piece of your original artwork on your merch.
Prep Your Supplies
Running out of equipment will bring your flash day to a complete halt. Make sure that you have more than enough tattoo supplies to get you through the day.
For example, if you’re only doing linework tattoos that only use black tattoo ink, then you need to be stocked up on liners and black ink.Some tattoo needle cartridges cost $2-3 a piece, which can take a chunk out of your profit of the day if you’re keeping your flash designs super low cost.
Since you’ll be using so many tattoo needles day-of, going with a budget option can be helpful. This does not mean using low quality or unsafe materials. Low quality equipment will create low quality tattoos, defeating the point of the flash day - which is to bring in new customers.
1 Day BEFORE Your Flash Day
Tattoo studios can get super busy with walk-in clients during flash days, so you’ll want to set up as much as possible the night before.
The day before your flash day, you’ll want to:
Your Flash Day
Post to social media throughout the day to build hype and draw in people who are on the fence about coming to the studio.
If you are a street shop where walk ins can easily find you, make sure to put up advertising outside your studio as well.
Pricing and Money
On flash days, you won’t charge your hourly rate. Instead, most shops will choose 1 price that will apply for all the available flash designs.
For example, Friday the 13th is considered a holiday in the tattooing community, and most tattoo shops will charge $31 for a “Friday the 13th” flash tattoo.
The low price is meant to draw in people who might come back for a custom piece later, so you’ll want to keep the cost low. For other events, you might have all tattoos be $50.
Get Clients to Come Back
After clients get their flash tattoo, use that as the first “punch” on a loyalty card. This will encourage clients to come back and work toward the reward you’ve set for loyal customers.
1 Day AFTER Your Flash Day
One day after your event, make sure to post saying thank you to everyone who came out to support your work. Show pictures of the tattoos, as well as any pictures you have working with clients.
Become a Tattoo Artist With the Artist Accelerator Program
Having a career in tattooing is not only fulfilling, but it’s also the most stable way to make a living as an artist. However, for decades, the process to become a tattoo artist has been notoriously difficult.
The apprenticeship process requires aspiring tattoo artists to work 50-60 hours a week without pay for 2-4 years. That, combined with the toxic culture of abusing apprentices, makes getting into the industry almost impossible for newcomers.
That’s why we created the Artist Accelerator Program. Our online course provides a simple, structured way of learning to tattoo that has been proven to work by over 2500 successful students, with many of them having gone on to open their own shops all around the world.
Inside the program, we’ll take you through every step of the tattooing process in 9 clear, easy-to-follow modules and support you along the way within the Tattooing 101 Mastermind online community.
In the Mastermind group, you’ll collaborate with other students, get answers to your questions, and receive personalized video feedback on your artwork and tattoos from professional tattoo artists. With this friendly community of both new and experienced tattoo artists, you’ll never be stuck again.
When you join the Artist Accelerator Program, you’ll have instant access to the full course and the Mastermind community, as well as our 30-Day Flash Challenge and recorded interviews with tattoo artists from all over the world.
Click here to learn more about the Artist Accelerator Program.
