How to Find Your Tattoo Industry Niche

What is a Niche?

A niche business is one that only caters to a specific portion of a larger industry.

Why are Niche’s important?

There are MANY different types of tattoo studio, but in this article we’re just going to focus on the main two – specialised and general. General tattoo studios will cover most styles of tattoos that customers may want and have a very broad appeal, whereas specialised studios may only have one style or tattoo type that they offer. 

General studio’s are great, however they’re all competing with every other general studio – have a look in your area, in most cities you can normally find several, all fighting for customers. In the first instance being able to offer any kind of tattoo may sound like a good idea, it certainly has the largest customer base (essentially anyone that want’s a tattoo). But there are lots of good reasons why you may want to consider specialising.

Imagine you want to get your teeth whitened, you’re stood on the road in front of two dentists, one of them is a general dentist whereas the other is a specific teeth whitening clinic. Without any other information you’re automatically more likely to go to the business that specialises in what you want. The same goes for types of tattooing. If a potential customer is looking for somewhere to get a black & white realism portrait, are they more likely to go to an overall tattoo studio, or one that specialises in exactly what they want?

Yes the overall demographic of people who want that specific style of tattoo is smaller, but there will be much less competition from tattoo artists. Having ALL of the black & white realism tattoos for the local area could potentially bring more work than getting a SMALL percentage of all the general tattoos in your area.

How to decide on a Niche

Before making that decision there are several things that must be considered, the perfect niche can be found with this Venn diagram:

What you are good at

Pick the style of tattooing you are most comfortable doing – remember, this is going to become your bread and butter so it can’t be a style you’ll get bored of! The goal is to build your brand and become the GO TO tattoo artist for this style. The bigger your brand gets, the further people would be willing to travel for you to tattoo them. For example there is a tattoo artist in Italy who ONLY does fine line-work snakes and NOTHING ELSE. However due to the quality of the line-work and recognisable style, they have clients flying in from all around the world.

What you enjoy

As mentioned above, if you’re going to spend all day everyday tattooing in one style, make sure you love it and want to be known for it. This style doesn’t have to be as specific as the snake example, just specialised enough that it sets you apart from general studios and enables you to market to those wanting that style of tattoo.

What people will pay for

Once you’ve build a huge brand around your style then there would be more opportunity to get WEIRD with your tattoo offering. However until that point it’s probably best to stick to specialising in already popular styles of tattoo. 

If you can find that sweet spot in the centre of all three, then you’ll be flying as an artist!