Tattoo artist
How does Tattooed choose which artist receives a request?
Tattooed filters and ranks artists by service area, availability, timing, distance, subscription, reliability, and style, then shows the top three.
Clients never browse the full tattoo artist directory. Tattooed automatically ranks the professionals available for their request and shows them the top three. The first has a recommendation badge, while the other two remain available right beside it. Ranking happens in two stages: filtering, then scoring.
Everything below describes only one path: clients Tattooed finds for you. People who already know you and book through your link, or whom you add to your calendar yourself, are not included in any of these calculations.
Filtering: who can be a candidate
An account is included in the calculation only if it meets all these conditions: the account is active, the "I’m available for new requests" setting is on under "Calendar", in the "Settings" tab, a geolocated address with latitude and longitude is saved, the studio is within the platform's selected service radius around the client, and your calendar has a genuinely open slot compatible with both the project's estimated duration and the availability provided by the client.
An account that misses any one of these conditions is simply never a candidate, regardless of the rest of its profile. Your payment account status is not one of these conditions. It only affects when deposit funds are paid out to you, not whether you appear in requests.
How your own clients factor into this calculation
Only one of the five conditions applies to them: having an open slot. A session booked through your public booking page, or added manually for someone who is already your client, takes up that time just like an assigned session. Assignment will not offer a slot you have already given to someone. Your own clients therefore do not cost you requests. They protect the time you reserved for them.
Otherwise, they are invisible to this ranking. They do not count as requests received, affect your position, or change your eligibility. See What is the difference between a client referred by Tattooed and a client who is already yours?.
Ranking: who appears, and in what order
Among the remaining candidates, Tattooed calculates a score based on several criteria. These include how soon the proposed slot is, the studio's distance from the client, the account's subscription status, its reliability score, and the match between the design style selected by the client and the styles listed on your profile. The three highest-ranked artists are selected and shown to the client.
Style never filters out a candidate. An artist who has not listed any styles remains eligible and may be selected if they are the only one available. Style is only used to rank artists when their circumstances are otherwise comparable.
Ranking first does not guarantee that you will be chosen
The client sees three professionals, not a score or numbered ranking. No compatibility percentage or position is shown on their listings. Ranking first gives you greater visibility, but the client is still free to choose either of the other two. A request may therefore go to the second or third candidate instead of the highest-ranked one.
The reliability score
Every account starts with a reliability score that changes with its history. It falls after a confirmed no-show, a dispute decided against you, or a late cancellation on your part, and rises after each completed appointment. This score directly affects ranking. All else being equal, an account with a lower score appears less often and ranks lower.
If no one is found on the first try
When no candidate matches, Tattooed gradually expands the search through several successive tiers before placing the request in a queue instead of showing the client an error. Each attempt is logged, including the exact reason every excluded artist was rejected. This lets support determine precisely why a request went to you or another artist if a question comes up.
Why I receive few or no requests
Your hourly rate is not part of this ranking. It determines the deposit amount, not your chances of being selected. The actual causes should be checked in a specific order, detailed in Why am I not receiving any requests on Tattooed?. None of them affects your own client base. An account that receives no assignments can still receive its regular clients.
See also: What is the difference between a client referred by Tattooed and a client who is already yours?
