the best tattoo booking app in los angeles

there are more ways to book a tattoo online in los angeles than there were two years ago, and they're not interchangeable. some are built around the shop's calendar, some around a national pool of portfolios, one around posting a brief and collecting quotes. goodwork is built around the work itself: you search real pieces by LA artists, open the artist who made the one you love, and book them.

full disclosure: i built goodwork. so this page lays out what each option actually does, and you can decide which fits the tattoo you're after.

every way to book a tattoo online in LA

which one, for which tattoo

if you already have a shop in mind, go to their site — most LA studios take a deposit through their own form or a square link, and a few put their flash up with prices. booksy does the same job for shops that run their whole calendar on it.

if you have an idea and no artist, book an artist lets you post the brief and hear back with quotes. it's a commissioning tool more than a directory, which is useful for custom design work and less so for picking someone by their style.

if you want to look at a lot of portfolios before you decide, tattoodo has the biggest national pool, and instagram has more than any of them — it's still where most people develop their taste. neither shows pricing or availability on the profile, so the booking step is a message and a wait for the quote.

goodwork is for the case in the middle, which is most of them: you know roughly what you want, you'd like to see who in LA actually tattoos that, and you'd like the price and the date settled before you commit. so the search starts from the pieces, the profile shows the artist's own prices and deposit, and the request carries the placement, size and references so the answer that comes back is a real estimate.

what's on goodwork right now

48 los angeles artists have public profiles, and every one of them uploaded their own work. a few you can browse and book today:

vince espinoza — fine line, blackwork and lettering. level tattoo — los feliz; realism, micro-realism, dotwork and surrealism. zitronxus — highland park; dark art, horror and illustrative blackwork. otaybeatdown — 150-plus pieces, mostly black and grey: koi, octopus, samurai helmets, a hummingbird in fine line. lunay flores — micro-realism, anime, botanical. jian liang — highland park; black and grey, realism and portraits. tyler whitlock — sherman oaks; full-color japanese, tribal and bio-mechanical sleeves.

seven artists, seven different styles, three neighborhoods, and that's a slice. the full roster is browsable by style and location.

what it costs

browsing is free, and you don't need an account to see any profile or price. when you book, there's a 6% booking fee on the total — $12 on a $200 piece — shown before you confirm. the deposit you pay goes to the artist and counts toward the tattoo. artists list for free and pay nothing on repeat clients; the exact numbers are on the pricing page.

what goodwork doesn't do

we're socal only. if you're looking for artists in new york, austin or miami, we're not there yet.

we don't have every artist in los angeles. every profile is reviewed before it goes live, which means the roster grows slower than an open marketplace, and it means every portfolio on it is the artist's own work.

we can't promise how fast an artist replies. they're independent and the good ones are busy. what we can promise is that your request arrives with everything they need to quote it, in the place they manage their bookings.

and we're not a design tool. you won't generate a tattoo on goodwork. you'll find a person whose work you love and start a conversation with them, and the design comes from them, informed by you.

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frequently asked questions

frequently asked questions