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InkUs is a mobile platform created to improve how tattoo enthusiasts and professional artists discover each other, collaborate, and bring tattoo concepts to life. Designed as a focused alternative to fragmented discovery across social platforms, InkUs centralizes inspiration, concept development, and artist matching into a single, purpose-built system. Originally launched as an early-stage product, InkUs returned for a strategic UX and design overhaul to better align the platform with real-world tattoo workflows, creator needs, and long-term user trust.
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Tattoo discovery carries a higher level of responsibility than most digital products. Decisions are permanent, personal, and culturally grounded. Yet discovery was largely happening on platforms optimized for speed, visibility, and engagement rather than accuracy or fit.
Users relied on Instagram feeds, Pinterest boards, and Google image searches to form ideas, then navigated fragmented paths to find artists capable of executing them. For artists, discovery depended on inconsistent tagging, scattered portfolios, and surface-level exposure.
InkUs identified this gap early. But like many first-to-market platforms, the initial experience borrowed heavily from generic social UX patterns. Discovery moved too fast. Matching happened too early. Artist representation lacked nuance. Trust had not yet been earned.
Founded by tattoo artist Joe Ankae, InkUs emerged from firsthand frustration with how fragmented tattoo discovery had become, a challenge later recognized beyond the tattoo community as the platform gained wider attention in the tech and product space.
As profiled by The Silicon Review.
InkUs did not have a feature problem. It had a decision-quality problem.
The platform needed to support two very different perspectives without flattening either. Tattoo enthusiasts were seeking clarity, confidence, and direction. Professional artists were protecting craft, time, and reputation.
When discovery prioritizes speed over understanding, both sides lose. Incorrect matches are not minor UX failures. They create wasted time, misaligned expectations, and broken trust, all unacceptable in a space defined by permanence.
The challenge was not to make discovery faster.
It was to make it responsible.
This project was not about improving discovery metrics. It was about protecting people, artists, and clients alike from systems that reward speed at the expense of understanding.
