What to Draw and Why to Draw It

Drawing professional flash isn’t quite as simple as tossing a few of your favorite “hot” tattoo designs on 11x14 sheets of paper, making a bunch of color copies, calling yourself a flash artist, and waiting for a few thousand tattoo studios to beat a path to your door (or your website). There is a difference between drawing flash art and the art of drawing flash. To be considered a professional flash artist, your art not only has to capture the attention of tattoo artists and draw out their wallets, but it has to catch the eye of tattoo customers and draw out their wallets as well -- over and over and over. And, of course, you have to enjoy what you’re doing as well.

When creating flash, it is important to distinguish between three seemingly competing considerations:



1  There are a great many talented people in this industry who are turning out some fantastic artwork and calling themselves flash artists. But artistic ability and creativity, although essential, by themselves do not necessarily translate into successful flash sales -- especially repeat sales! Your favorite designs to draw may make for great looking pieces of artwork, but unless those designs are actually chosen -- often -- by average tattoo customers (and most customers are average), your flash is nothing more than expensive wallpaper as far as the tattooist who bought and hung it is concerned. With wall space or rack space at a premium in most shops, professional studios won’t waste that precious space on displaying flash that doesn’t sell -- and they certainly won’t buy more “flash-that-doesn’t-sell” from that particular artist/company again.

There is nothing wrong with showcasing the designs you most enjoy drawing, but don’t make the mistake of over-doing a good thing. Just because you’re all jazzed about a certain tattoo genre and want to draw 10 full sheets of it, that doesn’t mean all tattoo customers are going to appreciate the object of your affection -- let alone wear it on their skin. Use the designs you personally like as a “spice” rather than the “main course”.

2  When tattooists buy flash, most would say they are buying it for their studio. But, in reality, they are buying flash for their customers. It is a distinction worth pointing out. In the end, whether or not the flash appeals to the tattooist isn’t as important as whether it appeals to the customer. Yes, a flash set has to capture the attention of the tattooist, but its true test lies in capturing the attention and wallets of the tattooist’s customers.

More and more, professional tattooists are buying flash with an eye for what will sell rather than simply what they themselves may like. The ever increasing volume of flash so readily available these days gives the discerning tattooist a great deal to choose from. When given the choice between some cool, cutting-edge “artsy” set and a well done set full of “sellable” designs, they’ll go for the artwork they know their customers will choose. They may still buy the occasional “artsy” set, but unless they notice that they are doing an awful lot of tattoos from that set, they probably won’t buy another set from that “artsy” artist. And for a professional flash artist, it is repeat sales that build a money-making reputation.

3  Because of the growing popularity and acceptance of tattooing, most professional tattooists make the bulk of their income from customers wandering into their studio to look for their first, or second, tattoo. These relative “newcomers” to the tattoo scene usually aren’t looking for a cool oriental half sleeve design, an $800 bio-mechanical tearout, or that realistic demon head with the freshly hatched maggots crawling out of its eyes. Like it or not, most customers choose the traditional images -- in a size they can live with and a price they can afford. Yup, roses and other small stuff are still the biggest sellers in most studios. Those welcome, but far-too-few, heavily tattooed customers wanting large pieces are also the ones that generally want custom work rather than “wall flash”.

It used to be that getting a tattoo was largely a “macho” thing to do and that meant tattoo customers were mostly men. Obviously, this is no longer true. Women are becoming an increasingly greater percentage of most studios’ clientele. Needless to say, most women are not looking for flaming skulls, shrunken heads, or half-naked hula girls for their first tattoo. Take into consideration this growing market of tattoo customers when choosing the designs you draw and the flash sheets you create.

What is popular with actual tattoo customers cannot be over emphasized. Take time to research what’s selling, keeping in mind that tastes vary from one geographic market to another. Obviously, being a working tattooist as well as a flash artist is a great advantage when it comes to understanding what customers are looking for. That knowledge is very valuable in deciding what kinds and what sizes of designs to draw when creating a set of flash. But also keep in mind that creating an entire set of flash that ends up just selling well only in your area means you may only sell your sets to the local competition. (Yeah, right.) A successful set of flash has enough variety in it to appeal to a variety of tattooists and their varied customers.

Producing Successful Flash Involves Compromise

A successful set of flash -- or better yet, a successful series of flash -- is like a balancing act. It is a matter of compromise in all three areas, juggling your personal tastes, a tattooist’s preferences, and what a tattoo customer is willing to spend his/her money on. Think of it as a well-blended recipe. There has to be a little something for everybody in every set of flash you sell -- you, the tattooist, the customer -- with an emphasis on the customer.

Remember, the bottom line is that if customers don’t choose your designs (again and again) then the tattooists who bought your flash don’t make money -- and if the tattooists who bought your flash don’t make money from it they probably won’t buy the next set you offer them. When tattoo studios begin to complain that all they ever do is designs from this set or that artist, then you know your flash is a success because they are complaining all
the way to the bank!

Why Should a Tattooist Buy Your Flash?

The Purpose of Tattoo Flash

For the tattooist, flash is an investment. If they do just one $50 tattoo a day from the flash you’ve sold them, that translates into over $12,500 a year, every year, directly in their pockets. Now that’s a healthy return on their investment of just $100 or so! They don’t buy flash to fatten your bank account -- they buy it to fatten theirs. The purpose of tattoo flash is not to make you money. The purpose is to make the tattooist money. In order for your flash to make money for you, it must first make money for the tattooist.

To be successful, your flash has to meet several standards:



1  A tattoo artist invests in different flash art in order to provide eye-catching displays of a wide selection of ready-drawn designs for customers to choose from. The investment only becomes a good value when a particular flash set or flash series proves to be popular with customers over and over, year after year. A valuable set of popular flash will generate hundreds of times its original cost in income for the tattooist -- a gold mine for the tattooist, a loyal customer for the flash artist!

But beyond the value of good flash art to make the tattooist money, a collection of good-selling flash represents a massive amount of varied designs and illustration styles that no one artist alone could create. Good flash art means tattooists can offer customers choices that they can competently tattoo, but very possibly couldn’t have drawn themselves.

2  Once purchased by a tattooist, your flash has to fulfill the purpose for which it was bought -- to make that tattooist money. In order for your flash to do this, it has to grab the attention of a wide variety of tattoo customers looking for an equally wide variety of designs and choices. Your flash has to compete with hundreds and hundreds of other sheets on the wall or in the racks, all screaming out “Pick me! Pick me!” It is the well-designed sheet, not just the designs on the sheet, that draws the customer to it.

Now that your sheets have gotten their attention, your designs have to entice them into making a choice. Your flash has to offer them the selection they are seeking and visually “sell” them that one design they just “have to have”. Here’s where artistic creativity, technical ability, popular designs, and quality reproduction all come together. When this happens consistently, your flash will be chosen -- often -- by customers.

The greatest compliment a flash artist can receive is when a studio calls up to place an order for your latest release and at the same time complains that all they ever seem to tattoo is your designs. With those words, you know you’re making them money -- and so do they! It is the money-making reputation of your flash that will make studios repeat customers -- and it is repeat customers that ultimately make money for you.

3  Beyond the primary need for flash to make money for the tattooist who bought it, is the sometimes overlooked need for flash to save time and effort for the one actually doing the tattooing. It seems obvious, but not all flash offers this appreciated luxury. Not all tattooists are capable of inking Olivia women or Guy Atchinson abstracts. Too complicated or too detailed designs, too many mixed colors, inaccurate, incomplete, or poor line art -- any of these things can make the job of tattooing a flash design harder and slower than it need be. A tattooist who has to struggle to pull off one of your designs will think twice about buying from you again -- no matter how popular those designs seem to be.

There’s More to a Successful Flash Set than Meets the Eye

Layout and Visual Appeal

Most flash artists put all their time and energy into drawing individual tattoo designs. They really don’t give much thought about the actual placement and arrangement of the designs they’ve worked so hard to draw. Instead they either squeeze as much as they can onto a sheet or they leave so much blank paper that one’s not sure whether it is the paper or the designs that are being sold. A lot of very good flash art has fallen victim to poor planning, poor formatting, and poor presentation.

The physical layout of each sheet is actually very important in determining the success of a flash set. Layout creates the “visual appeal” of a sheet of flash and determines both a customer’s initial reaction to that sheet as well as the subsequent amount of attention that sheet receives from the customer. Layout is the overall look of the sheet -- meaning the “sheet design” rather than just the designs on the sheet.

This overall look of a well-designed flash sheet includes a number of elements: variety in the design sizes, shapes and colors, a relatively consistent “negative” space (the visual space between designs created by the placement of the designs -- the way the individual designs are organized to “fit” together on the sheet), and to a lesser extent, sheet theme or subject matter. Don’t make the mistake of using busy or heavy “backgrounds” on your sheets. They only end up overpowering your designs and distracting the customer.

When faced with the hundreds (or thousands) of sheets of design choices they see upon entering a tattoo studio, customers will tend to zero in on the interesting, pleasing-looking sheets (overall look, visual appeal) rather than on individual tattoo designs. They will be drawn to attractive, well-balanced flash sheets rather than over-crowded, confusing sheets or half-blank, boring sheets. Needless to say, in order to sell a customer a design from one of your flash sheets, they have to actually be looking at one of your sheets.

Artistic Talent and Ability

The single essential ingredient in the making of a good flash artist, and the only one that can’t be “learned”, is that intangible and unteachable gift of natural artistic talent and ability. Without it, all the design tips and marketing skills in the world won’t produce successful flash art. But likewise, talent and ability alone without proper presentation and exposure will also fall short of success.

The artistic talent of flash artists shouldn’t have to be addressed. Yet there are so many wannabe flash artists (just like wannabe tattooists) that the industry has become flooded with “flash scratchers” passing themselves off as professionals -- selling sheets full of ghastly grade-school doodles. But just like the tattoo “scratchers” out there butchering victims and creating work for the professional tattoo artists who end up fixing or covering their messes, so too, the child-like scribblings of artistically-challenged tattoo designers only serve to emphasize the quality, care and talent that goes into producing truly professional flash.

If you think you are competing with these dime-a-dozen wannabes, it can be frustrating. But take heart, those artistically blind “tattooists” (and I use the term loosely) who buy “bargain flash” from these “artists” (again, I use the term loosely) probably would never buy “professional flash” anyway. Even if some of that poorly drawn scratcher-flash looks almost acceptable in their mini ads, flyers, or internet page -- rest assured, it will never pass the test once it hangs on a studio wall.

The most eye-catching and appealing of flash sheets from across the room won’t entice customers to part with their money if the designs on that sheet don’t hold up under closer scrutiny. Granted, a certain percentage of tattoo customers (just like the general public) are not very “art-literate” and a fair amount of them can’t “see” the difference between a well-drawn rose in full bloom and a wilted red cabbage, but the actual “artwork” must also appeal to the customer who can tell the difference. (Most professional tattooists can also tell the difference and they really don’t like doing ugly roses -- or ugly anything for that matter...)

This principle also applies to flash sheets that look pretty good in low resolution on the web, or as miniatures on printed mailers, but don’t actually deliver what was visually promised once a closer look is available -- usually after the purchase. The tattooist who is stuck with actual-size poorly drawn designs, crude coloring, or horrid-looking Kinko Kopies will most likely never again waste his/her money buying flash from that particular artist.

Shortcuts and Cut Corners won’t Cut it

Creating a huge pile of paper scraps full of inspired designs just begging to be tattooed, and then transforming that massive pile into 10 or 20 perfectly-drawn, well-organized, and superbly-colored sheets of professional flash art is no small task. In fact, it is the nuts and bolts “assembly” of the finished product that is often the most challenging, difficult, and time-consuming part of the process. It is also where artists are most often tempted to cut corners, get in a hurry, or even drop the ball altogether and simply give up. But there is no substitute for excellence in any phase of the process.

The truth is, drawing a marketable set of flash takes a great deal of time and effort. The work involved in creating a finished design for a flash sheet vs drawing out the idea for a customer’s custom tattoo is considerable. Since most flash artists are also tattooists, many of you probably understand this. For those who don’t, basically the custom tattoo sketch is a work-in-progress. It’s a rough sample of what the customer wants. It usually lacks some measure of refinement and detail -- the artist drawing it is also the artist applying it and he/she knows exactly what the finished tattoo should look like. Flash art on the other hand, is drawn, redrawn, and drawn again -- until it is just right. It becomes a complete finished piece of reference art (as well as a sales tool). It is refined and accurate, carefully rendered and polished.

Just as all tattoo customers deserve to receive an tattooist’s best efforts in applying their tattoo, so each design on a flash sheet should represent that flash artist’s very best effort as well. Don’t cut corners. Don’t throw any less-than-your-best drawings on a sheet just to fill up space. The tattoo artists who buy your flash aren’t looking for “fillers”-- they’re looking for “sellers”. Make a real effort to fill your sheets with quality, sellable designs. The time you invest in making every design you create a seller, and every sheet you produce an exercise in excellence, will pay great dividends down the road -- for the tattooist and for you.

Putting Together a Set of Flash

There are a variety of methods employed by flash artists when putting together a finished set of designs. Some will take a blank piece of illustration board or other preferred paper surface and treat it as a single canvas, drawing an entire finished sheet of designs all at once. Some will sketch out rough layouts of their sheets. They will add, subtract, change and tweak those layouts and then transfer the refined layout to board or paper for final inking and coloring. Others will sort through that “pile” of drawings, cut them out, and arrange them on blank sheets. Then they will copy, trace or transfer their design arrangements to another surface for completion. (My method is more “mechanical” and based on my previous life as a graphic designer/illustrator.) The method you chose may even be something completely different. The idea is to cull out the so-so designs and create finished sheets that aren’t visually boring nor confusingly over-crowded.

Work in the medium you are most experienced and comfortable with -- pen & ink, lead pencils, colored pencils, markers, watercolors. Whatever technique you choose, make sure the finished images you’ve created are readily reproducible as tattoos (remember, save the tattooist time and effort). Avoid working with airbrush, it creates a photo-quality design most tattooists can’t replicate. The same is often true of computer-generated designs. Pay at least passing attention to the length of single-stroke lines in your designs that you expect the artist to be able to ink in one flowing motion. Also consider the amount of detail you are requiring the artist to cram into a particular space. And it doesn’t hurt to consider how many needle setups and mixed colors will be needed to do the design justice.

This may be a good place to mention that not all tattooists are created equal. Just as there are some tattoo customers who can’t tell the difference between a good tattoo and a bad one, there are a number of tattooists who simply aren’t capable of pulling off even a fairly basic design, let alone a recognizable reproduction of Boris’ fantasy artistry. This is not to say that as a flash artist you have to prostitute your art so the bottom of the food chain can still tattoo your designs -- rather it is to remind you that you are drawing design sheets for a tattoo studio, not fine art prints for a gallery. A dazzling set of brilliantly rendered sheets meant to showcase your incredible talents and considerable ego won’t do tattooists any good if it is beyond their ability to tattoo -- or simply requires too much time to tattoo, making it too expensive for the average tattoo customer (there’s that average thing again).

How the sheet is created doesn’t really matter as long as the end results are the same -- a good looking, high quality, superbly drawn collection of excellent tattoo designs (and line art) that tattoo artists will buy and tattoo customers will choose!

Oh yeah, it comes with line art too...

Another very, very important element of successful flash that is all too often overlooked is line art. Far too many flash designers put little, if any, time, let alone effort, into the line art they offer with their sets (yes, this does include well-known professional flash artists). Typically, the line art is drawn last. Understandably, for most artists it is the least enjoyable step in the process of completing a set.

Usually line art is hastily drawn up by throwing a piece of tracing paper over the finished flash sheet and making a quick tracing of the designs in order to finally “finish up” the set. The result is that little attention has been paid to the accuracy of details, smoothness of curves, straightness of lines, or their thickness and consistency. The resulting crude line art leaves much to be desired. Extra effort will certainly be required for any tattooist to turn that poorly drawn line art into an accurate stencil for reproduction of that carefully drawn flash design their customer chose, and expects to receive. If a tattooist has to spend time redrawing your line art, or worse yet, screws up a tattoo because he/she followed your line art, you can be sure your next set of flash won’t be a priority on the Christmas wish list.

Whether you draw your line art as your first or last step in creating flash, don’t make the mistake of cutting corners or carelessly hurrying through an admittedly boring process. If you draw a crooked line, do it over. If that wizard’s eyes just don’t quite look right, do ‘em over. Unlike tattooing, paper can be tossed, skin can’t and pencils have erasers, tattoo machines don’t. Consider this: the better your line art is -- the more accurately and perfectly each line in each design is drawn -- the better chance a tattooist has of coming close to actually pulling it off. If your line art is as good as you can possibly make it, your flash can’t help but give an average tattooist the opportunity to look pretty good too.

Mass Reproduction of Flash Sets

You’ll have to Trust a Machine with your Artwork

Now that you’ve completed sheets and sheets of awesome tattoo designs, how are you going to reproduce them to best “capture” the beauty of those designs, the brilliance of those colors, the subtleties of that shading? Truth is, you’re not. Oh, you can come close, but unless you’re willing to go to the expense of producing the equivalent of high-end limited edition fine art prints, your flash sheets simply will not be a truly “perfect” reproduction of your art*. You are going to have to live with a process that just cannot reproduce the intensities or subtleties of your original artwork.

Offset printing and color copying are probably the options most often considered. Both are capable of producing an acceptable product and both have their advantages and disadvantages. Which method you choose will depend upon the amount of money you are able to invest (or willing to risk) in turning your flash into a sellable product.

*Note: Normal offset printing is a four color process using yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks (color copiers also use this combination). To accurately render all the subtleties and variations of color in a painting, additional colors would need to be mixed and printed -- sometimes requiring up to 20 runs through the press. This degree of accuracy is incredibly expensive and obviously unnecessary.

Offset Printing

Traditional 4-color offset printing involves both pre-press work and the actual press run. Pre-press work covers all the necessary steps involved in converting your flash sheets from drawings into press plates for the printing process. It includes scanning your artwork, cleaning up backgrounds, balancing colors, outputting proofs or matchprints, and burning press plates.

Printing a color or black & gray set of flash will require several press runs, depending upon how many 11x14 flash sheets can be printed on the overall size of the paper sheet the press is capable of handling. Most common would be either 2-up or 4-up, meaning printing 2 or 4 flash sheets at a time (they are cut apart later). Printing a 6- or 10-sheet set of flash requires multiple press runs of both the flash sheets and the line art.

Offset printing can be a very expensive process. The good news is that once the press is running, the cost per copy goes down the more copies you run. That is to say, a press run of 1,000 copies doesn’t cost twice as much as a run of 500. Now investing thousands of dollars in printing a set of flash is a lot of money, granted, but remember you have 500 or more complete sets of flash. You probably only need to sell several dozen or so sets to break even, the rest will be profit. (Don’t forget though, if you print 1,000 copies of the set, you also have 12-20,000 sheets of flash/line art to store.) I’ve also noticed that printed artwork will tend to fade over time because of the nature of the inks used, although they have improved over the years. This could be minimized with the addition of a UV coating, but that involves another run through the press (unless your printer has a 5 or 6 color press), and will add to your printing bill.

Color Copies

Color copiers have come a long way over the past few years. Their ability to do a pretty darn good job of reproducing original art is impressive -- almost magical*. There are a number of different brands of copiers to consider, but for the most part, they will all do an acceptable job -- providing they are properly operated, regularly serviced and adjusted. I personally like Canon copiers. But a well maintained Sharp will beat the pants off a neglected Canon, and vice-versa.

*Unfortunately, that magical ability not only makes producing flash sets convenient and affordable for the legitimate flash artist, it makes reproducing all those bootleg sets easier as well.

Color copies have the obvious advantage of allowing you to print as many or as few sets of flash as you want. Although the cost per set is higher than offset printing, the initial investment will be considerably less. 11x14 color copies can range from less than $1.00 up to around $1.50 each. Line art copies can be made for about a dime or so per sheet. You can print as few as a couple sets or as many as you want (or can afford). Storing inventory is also less of a concern.

The high quality that color copiers are capable of can also be a drawback. Not only will they accurately capture the detail of the designs you’ve drawn, they will also faithfully reproduce every flaw, smudge, and speckle that your original artwork may contain. Make sure your original art is as clean as possible. Some of the background “noise” can be dropped out by adjusting the machine’s sensitivity, but only to a point. Beyond that, your nice bright colors will also begin to wash out.

Another consideration when producing flash as color copies is maintaining quality control -- maintaining the consistency and accuracy of copies made days, weeks, or even months apart. Also, be aware that commercial outlets for color copies usually offer only a limited selection of paper stock. Be prepared to spend some time searching for a copier that will run the nice “heavy weight” paper stock traditionally associated with tattoo flash. Most color copiers run paper through on a drum, laying down one of the four process colors on each revolution. Heavy papers don’t “roll” as easily and often jam drum machines. A color copier that passes the paper through the machine on a flat bed works best for the heavy papers.

Buying you own color copier is also an option. But unless you have an absolute need for it apart from running off copies of flash sets, it may become a very expensive toy if your flash doesn’t sell as well as hoped.

Digital Presses & Computers

Digital presses offer a great deal of flexibility in printing and pricing is more along the lines of high-end color copies. If a printer in your area offers digital printing, it would be worth your while to check into it. There will be some pre-press charges involved, but once any adjustments to your scans have been made and saved in the computer, all future copies can simply be output directly from the digital memory. Quality is excellent, heavy paper stock is no problem, and short runs of 10 or 20 sets won’t cost any more, or less, per set than a run of 100 sets or more.

Another digital option that you might consider is your own computer. A large bed scanner capable of scanning 11x14 sheets, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark Express programs, along with a top quality printer for outputting 11x14 sheets is about all you’ll need (plus the time to devote to mastering these “toys”). A definite advantage to printing your own flash is that you do have complete control over the quality of the printed sets. You can clean up dirty backgrounds, smudges, even correct mistakes and adjust design placement, sizes and colors -- all in your computer. Whether you are comfortable enough working with computers and programs, and whether this route would be cost-effective for you, is something you will have to determine.

Sales and Marketing of Tattoo Flash

Should I do it myself or...?

The first decision you need to make is whether you will personally market the flash you’ve created or allow (trust) a supply company, or third party, to market it for you. If you decide to turn your flash over to someone else to market, make sure the person or company is honest and ethical as well as competent to do the job. Supply companies and flash sellers seem to spring up overnight in this industry -- kind of like tattoo studios on every corner -- so
if you don’t want to sell the flash yourself, invest the necessary effort to find a reputable outlet -- one that is good at what they do and will also still be there tomorrow.

Letting the “Other Guy” Do It

Some companies will offer to purchase the “rights” to your flash. In essence they are paying you to sign over the ownership of your art to them. They now own the copyrights to your art and they can do anything they want with it, just as if they’d created it themselves. If you are looking for a quick buck, this may appeal to you. If so, negotiate the best price you can because once you’ve sold it, it won’t ever earn you another penny. But that’s all right if it’s what you want to do.

Other companies may be willing to buy flash sets wholesale from you and offer them at retail in their product catalogs, or on their websites, etc. Some may insist on exclusive rights, others may not. This arrangement offers a greater potential for income than simply selling off your copyrights. The amount of money you end up making will depend directly on the marketing efforts of that particular company and, of course, on the popularity of your flash. You will have to maintain sufficient “inventory” to allow you to promptly ship wholesale orders to the company or companies you deal with.

Still other marketing companies offer to market, advertise, produce, package and ship your flash in exchange for a percentage of the sales generated. They also typically require exclusive marketing rights (regional, national or worldwide, depending on their sales reach). You retain ownership of your artwork, “licensing” this company to reproduce and sell your flash. Usually, this arrangement involves the marketing company giving you a periodic accounting of sales and issuing you a royalty check. Again, your financial reward will depend on the company’s marketing skills and the quality and popularity of your flash. Now, since the “company” is actually producing (copying or printing) your flash as well as marketing it, it is very important that you are dealing with a reputable business. The potential for fraud is obvious.

With any of the above options, it is very important to put everything in writing. Be specific about who’s doing what and what’s being expected -- what rights are retained, what rights (if any) are given up or transferred, what expenses are involved, who’s paying those expenses? If a contract is involved, what is the effective term, are royalties or percentages spelled out, are they calculated on gross sales or net profits, can the contract be amended or altered, and how? If you enter into a contractual arrangement with anyone, be sure to have someone knowledgeable and trustworthy review the terms and conditions before signing anything!

Doing it Yourself

If you want to try your hand at getting your flash into the market place and into the tattoo studios, here’s a few ideas and tips that my help you out. Basically there are 5 ways to promote your artwork directly to tattooists and the tattoo industry -- personal sales calls, convention exposure (entering flash contests and/or selling from your booth), print advertising in trade publications, internet site(s), targeted direct mail. Each one involves investing varying amounts of time, effort and money to be effective.

Personal Sales Calls and Conventions

Personal sales calls are the easiest and least expensive way to sell flash. Selling door to door usually begins in your own back yard, but if you’re a tattooist, the odds aren’t real good that your competition would buy your flash, nor would you really want them to. You’ll have to do some traveling in order to sell your work. Obviously, traveling simply for the purpose of selling flash involves some expense. Unless your flash sells like hotcakes, you may be lucky just to pay for your road trip -- especially if you are a working tattooist and take into consideration the income you’re losing by not tattooing back home.

One way of expanding your sales territory is to enlist the services of state or regional sales reps to sell for you on a commission basis. I’m not personally familiar with any official “sales rep” business offering this service, but they may exist. (Far more common are the traveling bootleggers...) Again, the honesty and integrity of people selling your flash is essential -- you may have given them 20 sets to sell, but after a quick stop at Kinko’s they may now have 40 sets! You also might try twisting the arm of a few friends in different parts of the country to test the waters at tattoo studios in their areas.

If you are a tattooist, one way to maximize personal sales opportunities and minimize expenses is to combine a little door to door hustling along with your attendance at various conventions. You’re already out of your local area, might as well grab that hotel phone book and check out the tattoo scene in the city. And of course, while at the convention, enter your flash in competition and offer it for sale to the other artists in attendance. It’s best to sell from your own booth or from a friend’s booth (aisle hawking is frowned on).

Print Advertising

Advertising your flash in tattoo trade magazines can generate sales as well. Buying an ad big enough (and probably in color) to show off the quality of your flash will cost a lot. Doing that in several magazines will cost an awful lot! It doesn’t take running many ads and you could wind up spending $10-$20-$30,000 or more a year. You’ve got to be generating a tremendous amount of sales from those ads to justify that kind of expense.

The alternative to running big, colorful, expensive ads is running small, black & white, cheap ads. Now those small ads certainly can’t “show” your flash and most potential customers won’t risk sending off money to buy something they haven’t seen from someone they don’t know. Yet, the small ad can be effective -- use it to advertise your catalog, or your website where the flash sets can be viewed.

Tip: If you include your mailing address in your advertising, expect requests from prisoners wanting catalogs or samples. Putting just your phone number and/or web address in your ad will greatly reduce this. If you offer a catalog, consider specifying “professional studios only” otherwise you’ll get requests from non-tattooists (non-buyers of your flash). Also consider the readership of the magazines you advertise in. Are they working tattooists or tattoo enthusiasts? Tattooists buy flash, enthusiasts don’t.

Internet

Over the past ten years or less, the internet has gone from zero sources for tattoo flash to thousands of sources. Adding your flash to cyber space certainly can’t hurt. Creating and maintaining a basic website is relatively inexpensive -- and if you own a studio there’s a good chance you already have a presence on the web.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, get some professional help in creating your website, or adding flash to an existing one. Size and resolution should be good enough to for viewers to tell what they’re looking at, but not so good that all they have to do is download your art! Make sure your site is listed with all the major search engines. Take advantage of links available and tattoo web rings, and even consider purchasing an advertising banner on some of the large, high-traffic tattoo sites if they offer it.

Tip: With all the magic, cool gimmicks and animated graphics on the internet now, it can be real tempting to build a site that’ll blow ‘em away! Don’t do it. Slow-loading, complicated, confusing, hard-to-navigate sites turn off more potential customers than they turn on. Make your site good looking, even creative, but keep it simple -- you’re a flash artist selling tattoo designs, not a webmaster selling website designs.

Direct Mail

Direct mail marketing to a select target group -- tattoo studios -- can be a cost-effective way to give your product exposure and generate sales. It puts a sample of your flash or a catalog sheet of the set(s) you offer right into the hands of the customers you’re trying to reach. Direct mail can be expensive, but if your flash is really as good as you think it is, it gets results.

The costs involved in direct mail include: printing up color samples, catalog sheets or flyers (or fold-up, poster-type self-mailers), order forms, envelopes, plus the necessary mailing list, labels and postage. Depending on what printed materials you choose to go with and the size of your mailing list, these costs for a single direct-mail campaign will probably run several thousand dollars.

The integrity of your mailing list is very important. Shops open and close faster than a swinging door in a hurricane and you don’t want to waste money sending mailers to vacant buildings. Perhaps the best source for establishing a basic mailing list is the ASC Directory. There will still be a number of studio addresses listed that are no longer any good, but it is a fairly reliable resource. Even though it only comes out yearly (allowing some of the listed studios to move or close before it is published), studios do pay to be listed in the directory, making it more likely that the shops are well established and less likely they will move or fail by the time the directory comes out. (Don’t even bother with “yellow page” listings that are available on the internet. From experience I can tell you their accuracy struggles to reach 50%.)

Tip: Send your mailing out first class with “Return Service Requested” printed under your return address on the envelope or mailer. It is the only way to reasonably guarantee the accuracy of your mailing list. By requesting the return service, you will be able to update your mailing list with new addresses of studios that have moved and drop the addresses of those who have closed.

From the Drawing Board to your Customers’ Hands

Customer Service

It should go without saying that a commitment to “customer service” ranks right up there with a commitment to “product excellence”. Both are essential to success in any business. Make it as easy as possible for customers to get in touch with your business, request information, get answers to their questions, place orders, choose payment or delivery options -- and above all, return all phone calls. Believe it or not, this is probably the single “service” most often lacking and it is extremely aggravating and frustrating for customers. It’s easy to correct, just return the phone calls!

Packaging and Shipping

The sale hasn’t been completed until the product being sold is in the hands of the customer, delivered in a timely fashion and in good condition. Now these things are not completely within your control. You can do your part by properly packaging your product and shipping it promptly, but packages can, and do, get lost or damaged. Granted, it’s probably not your fault, but it certainly isn’t your customer’s fault -- and you have to be the one to make it right. So do all you can to insure prompt, secure shipment. Your customers
will appreciate it and you will minimize your losses.

Packaging and shipping involves a bit more that sliding a set of flash into an envelope and sending it off. Protecting your customer’s purchase until it reaches them is your responsibility. They paid good money for your flash and they deserve to receive it in good condition. At a very minimum, the flash should be wrapped and sandwiched between cardboard. This will reduce potential damage in shipment. Better yet, put that sandwich inside a box instead of an envelope. This still won’t prevent damage completely, but it will
greatly reduce the likelihood. (Believe it or not, I’ve had boxed flash returned that was wet and covered with tire tracks!)

The method of shipment is up to you. If you use the US Mail, Priority Mail (domestic) or Global Priority (international) is a good way to go. It is relatively inexpensive (but only shipments from 1 to 4 lbs). The disadvantage is that you have no proof of delivery. For an extra charge you can request confirmation of delivery. However, if the shipment doesn’t arrive when your customer expects it, you have no way of knowing if it is lost or just late. You will occasionally end up making double shipments at your expense. (Note: domestic COD service is also available through the US Mail, although you cannot specify method of payment.)

UPS or FedEx provide the advantage of allowing you to track your shipments. Their pricing is competitive with Priority Mail on packages up to 4 or 5 lbs and actually cheaper on heavier ones. US Mail still has an across the board price advantage on international shipments -- and less paperwork too. International Global Express Mail, although expensive, does offer insured delivery. However, it is not readily trackable and the postal service requires you wait several weeks before allowing your claim. In the meantime, you will probably need to reship your customer’s order immediately -- the “lost” shipment is not your customer’s fault.

Note: When shipping with UPS or FedEx, only deliveries to commercial addresses require a recipient signature. Residential deliveries can be left on the doorstep (the driver signs that the package was delivered). Obviously, although it was delivered to the specified address, it certainly could be stolen or damaged after the delivery. Of course, COD deliveries to residential addresses require signature/payment.

Orders and Payment Options

Make it as easy as possible for customers to reach you and to place orders. Be available during normal business hours. Have an answer machine and return those calls. Offer a toll free number for domestic orders (they are available internationally, though really not necessary) and possibly a fax line as well. If you have a website, online options of secure ordering with credit cards, PayPal, or other such services should be considered.

Prepayment options of money orders, checks and credit cards are most common, but some international customers will prefer to use direct bank transfers. Many customers want orders shipped COD. As mentioned before, this can be done by UPS, FedEx, even the US Mail (although none of these offer international COD services).

While we’re on the subject of CODs, you need to know that they are no longer the sure-fire reliable method of payment they once were when real cash money was still accepted. You can specify payment by “cashier’s check/money order only” (if you don’t specify, the driver will accept any check -- business or personal), but even specifying isn’t foolproof. A little
known fact (thankfully) is that a stop payment can be issued not only on checks, but also on money orders, cashier’s checks, even bank drafts! The only safe payment is a Postal Money Order. Although UPS/FedEx don’t allow for this specific option, you can tell your customers you require a Postal Money Order for COD payment.

Since stop payments can be made on pretty much anything, and credit card fraud is an obvious possibility, know that you will be the victim of theft at some point. But use some common sense and strike a balance between protecting yourself and making it too difficult for customers to place and pay for orders.

Putting it All Together

Strive for Excellence in all you do.

As you can see, creating and marketing successful flash art is not for amateurs, small children, or those who can’t be trusted with sharp objects. It involves a whole lot more than a piece of paper, some colored pencils, and a few ideas. It takes talent, imagination, dedication, and plain old hard work -- and a healthy measure of common business sense doesn’t hurt either. If the art form is to be taken seriously, it can be a very demanding mistress. But the rewards exceed the sacrifices if your standards are set high enough.

Strive for excellence in every aspect of the art and of the business -- from line art to finished designs, layout to production, marketing to customer service. Always keep in mind just what it is that makes your flash popular with tattoo studios -- their customers choosing your designs. And never forget that you are not the source of your own gifts and talents.

But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant. DEUTERONOMY 8:18

If you have any questions, or just want to talk art, feel free to drop me a line or give me a call. And if you’re ever lost somewhere out in the western plains of Minnesota, I’m the third cornfield on the right, and straight on ‘til morning -- just drop on in, the coffee’s always on.