How We Build and Rank the Directory

This page explains where the information in our Washington tattoo directory comes from, what the labels on listings mean, and how we keep the directory accurate. If anything here doesn't match what you see on the site, tell us.

Where does the data come from?

We combine several public sources. No single source covers every studio, and each one fills gaps in the others.

DOL's numbers are the most reliable count of the industry: about 940 licensed tattoo shops and about 3,100 licensed tattoo artists statewide (WA DOL open data, August 2026). Map data finds where studios are, but it can include places that have closed or moved. That's why we cross-check.

How are listings checked?

Each listing in our database stores:

• Its sources, such as OpenStreetMap, Overture, a studio website, an editor entry, or several of these.
• A confidence score from 0 to 1, our estimate of how likely it is that the studio is real, open and correctly located. Studios found in several independent sources generally score higher than single-source listings.
• A status: listed open, not confirmed open, or closed. "Listed open" means the source data lists the studio as operating, or recent dated evidence, such as the studio's own website, shows it open. It doesn't mean someone from Seattle Tattoo visited or called. When the sources don't confirm that a studio is open, the listing says "Not confirmed open", so check before visiting. No listing is marked "verified": we don't check shops one by one. When a studio closes, we take it off lists and maps, and anyone following an old link learns the studio is gone.
• A data-as-of date, the date of the source data its details come from. Listings show it as "Listed open · data as of" that date.

Summaries of a studio's work are written only from public information, such as the studio's own website and published profiles. We show prices only when the studio publishes them, with a link to that page. When a studio's own pages disagree about its hours, we don't show hours at all and ask you to check with the studio. We don't invent details, guess at prices, or write fake reviews.

How often is the directory refreshed?

We re-run the data pipeline against fresh map and website data regularly, and we update license counts when DOL publishes a new monthly snapshot. Price, law and aftercare guides are reviewed whenever a source changes, and each page shows its updated date. A listing's data-as-of date tells you how fresh its details are.

Licenses can lapse between our checks. Before you book, look up the artist and shop on the DOL License Lookup. Our Washington tattoo laws guide shows you how.

What does "Editor's pick" mean?

Editor's picks are studios our editors chose by hand. They are never paid for, and a studio can't buy, request or trade for one. Picks reflect our editors' judgment of a studio's portfolio quality and consistency, its professionalism and its licensing. A pick is an editorial judgment, not a guarantee. The right artist for you depends on the style you want.

Featured

Featured: Seattle Tattoo and Cleopatra Ink Seattle share ownership.

Today the only Featured listing is Cleopatra Ink Seattle, a tattoo and piercing studio in Downtown Seattle. Because Seattle Tattoo and the studio share ownership, the Featured label and that disclosure appear together wherever we promote it: the home page, its studio page, studio lists and search.

• Featured changes position, not facts. A Featured listing can be pinned first in a list or shown in the home page spotlight. Its address, hours, phone number, styles, prices, business registration and artist details come from the same sources, under the same rules, as every other listing. Neither ownership nor payment changes the facts we publish about any studio.
• Featured is not an Editor's pick. Cleopatra Ink Seattle is not an Editor's pick, and a Featured listing never gets one.
• Claims are attributed. What a Featured studio says about itself, such as award claims for its artists, appears as the studio's own claim with a link to where it says so. We haven't independently verified any of these awards.
• The disclosure covers Cleopatra Ink Seattle only. Cleopatra Ink's Tacoma and Vancouver studios don't share ownership with Seattle Tattoo. They are listed under the same rules as every other studio and are never featured.

If we ever feature another studio, it will carry the same Featured label with its own disclosure, under these rules.

Business licenses

Some listings in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett show a line such as "Registered City of Seattle business since 2014". It comes from city business-license open data, and it links to the city's dataset.

• It's a city business registration, not a tattoo license. It shows that the business has a city business license or tax account at that address. It isn't a Washington Department of Licensing tattoo shop or artist license, and it doesn't mean the city approves, inspects or endorses the studio. To check tattoo licenses, use the DOL License Lookup.
• How we match. We match city records to listings by business name and street address, and we show a record only when the match is strong. A listing without the line isn't unregistered: we may not have matched it, and most Washington cities don't publish this data.
• What we show. The year the record starts, the city account number when the city publishes one for a business, and the date of the data. "Years in business" appears only as a lower bound ("19+ years") when the record supports it. We don't show records whose data is more than about 13 months old.

City of Seattle data

Source: Active Business License Tax Certificate, published by the City of Seattle, Department of Finance and Administrative Services. The City of Seattle publishes this dataset in the public domain. It also lists businesses based outside Seattle that work in the city, so we only use records with a Seattle address.

City of Tacoma data

Source: Business Licenses (Tacoma), published by the City of Tacoma, Tax and License, used under the City of Tacoma Open Data Disclaimer. The dataset lists active tax and license accounts; it doesn't show whether this year's license has been paid. The City of Tacoma requires this notice:

The information and data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the City of Tacoma. The City of Tacoma makes no claims as to the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of any information and data contained in this application; makes no representation of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranty of the accuracy or fitness for a particular use; nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with respect to the information or data furnished herein. The information and data is subject to change without notice. It is understood that the information and data contained in the web site is being used at user's own risk.

City of Everett data

Source: Licensed Businesses within the City of Everett, published by the City of Everett, used under the City of Everett Open Data Terms of Use. The City of Everett requires this notice:

The data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the City of Everett. Neither the City of Everett nor the Information Technology Department makes any claims as to the completeness, timeliness, accuracy or content of any data contained in this application; makes any representation of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranty of the accuracy or fitness for a particular use; nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with respect to the information or data furnished herein. The data is subject to change as modifications and updates are complete. It is understood that the information contained in the web feed is being used at one's own risk.

Neither Tacoma nor Everett endorses Seattle Tattoo or any studio listed here.

Artists

Artist profiles come from the artist and team pages that studios publish on their own websites. For each artist we record only what the studio publishes:

• the artist's name as the studio writes it, their role (tattoo artist, apprentice, owner, guest artist or piercer) and their studio;
• styles, only when the studio's page names them for that artist, and a short specialty in the studio's own words;
• professional links: Instagram, the artist's own website and a booking link;
• the photo the studio shows with the artist's name (see Photos).

Every profile links to the studio page it came from.

Professional information only. We never publish personal phone numbers, email or home addresses, age, family, health, ethnicity or nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or pronouns, or where someone grew up or lives, even when a studio's page mentions them.

What we don't use. We don't copy artist data from Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, Tattoodo or Google. We only link to an artist's own professional profiles. We also don't use the Department of Licensing's lists of individual license holders, which can't be used for commercial purposes.

Guest artists appear with the dates the host studio publishes. When a guest visit ends, the profile drops off our lists and out of search results.

Search engines. A profile with only a name and a studio stays out of search results until it has a bio, two or more styles or a professional Instagram, or until the artist claims it.

Keeping profiles current. We re-read studio websites regularly. If an artist has left but a studio's site still lists them, the profile can lag behind. Tell us and we'll fix it.

Add, claim, correct or remove a profile. Artists can add a profile, or claim the one built from their studio's website to correct details or add professional information such as styles, a short bio or a booking link, on our join or claim page. They can also ask for removal there or through our contact page. We confirm each claim through the artist's Instagram, an email address at the studio's web domain, or the studio's owner. If an artist gives us a Washington DOL license number, an editor checks it by hand in the DOL lookup. We always honor removal requests: the profile is taken down at our next update.

Photos

Photos on the site come from the studios' own websites:

• Studio photos and logos are the images a studio's website publishes for sharing or in its page data. Our crawler checks each one and skips logos, flyers, screenshots and other graphics posing as photos. We credit each photo to the studio's website.
• Artist photos are the images a studio shows next to the artist's name on its own artist page, credited the same way.
• The Featured studio's gallery shows photos that Cleopatra Ink Seattle publishes on its own website.

We never take photos from Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, Google or other platforms. We resize and crop images to fit the page, and we don't otherwise edit them.

Opting out. Studios and artists can ask us to remove or replace any photo through add or fix a listing, the artist join or claim page or our contact page. We take it down at our next update and keep it off the site.

How do we use AI?

We use AI tools in three places: drafting assistance for guides, summarizing public information from studio websites into short descriptions, and reading studios' artist pages. Every AI-assisted guide records that it was AI-assisted and is reviewed by a human editor before it's published. Editors check facts such as laws, prices and health guidance against the sources cited on the page, and we link to those sources so you can check them too. When AI reads an artist page, every detail it suggests must appear on the studio's page for that artist, or we drop it. AI never decides Editor's picks, never writes reviews, and is never the only source for a fact.

How can studios claim or correct a listing?

Studio owners and artists can claim a listing or request changes at /add-your-studio. That covers new studios, moves, closures, hours, styles, booking links and photos. We check each change against a public source, such as your website, an official social profile or your DOL license record, before publishing it. Corrections don't cost anything, and claiming a listing has nothing to do with Featured placement.

Corrections policy

If we get something wrong, we fix it. Send corrections through our contact page with a link or document that supports the change. When we correct a factual error in a guide, we update the page's updated date. If the correction changes the meaning of advice, such as a law, price or health recommendation, we add a short correction note to the page. Read more in our editorial policy.