Leaving and managing reviews

• What a review is made of

  A review has three optional studio fields and a few required practitioner fields. The exact rating categories depend on the practitioner's discipline:

  • Project-based (tattoo, body modification) — clients rate Quality, Communication, and Professionalism.
  • Time-based (piercer, permanent makeup, laser removal) — clients rate Experience and Professionalism.

  Below the practitioner section, an optional studio section asks for Cleanliness and Atmosphere ratings plus an optional studio comment. Clients can skip the studio section entirely if it doesn't feel relevant — it's not gated by anything; it's just there if they want to use it.

  There's also a free-text comment on the practitioner review and another on the studio review. Both are optional. A client can leave a 5★ rating with no written comment and it still counts as a complete review.

• The two-speed visibility model

  Star ratings and written comments don't follow the same rules:

  • Star ratings publish immediately — the moment the client taps Submit, the ratings join the practitioner's running average. The headline figure on the profile (4.7★ · 12 reviews) updates straight away. This applies even if the comment is still Pending.
  • The written comment is held back as Pending until the practitioner decides to make it public on their profile. Until then, it's invisible to everyone except the client who wrote it and the practitioner who received it.
  • The full review card (with the per-category stars and the comment text) only appears on the public profile once the practitioner makes it public.

  The result: a review the practitioner hasn't published can drag down their headline average, but the public profile won't show the breakdown of which review did it until the practitioner acts on it. That's the trade-off — the rating average is automatic and uncensored, the written reputation is opt-in.

• How visibility states work for the practitioner

  Every review the practitioner receives lives in one of three states, which they switch from a Reviews info card on their own profile:

  • Pending — fresh review, comment hidden from the public profile. The practitioner reads it here first.
  • Public — the practitioner chose to publish the comment. The review card shows on the public profile. The client gets a notification that their review was made public.
  • Archived — the practitioner removed the comment from the public profile, or chose not to publish it. The review still exists, the star ratings are still in the headline average, but the comment is hidden. The client is not notified when a review is archived — archiving is silent.

  A practitioner can move a review between states freely. Archived reviews can be unarchived (they go back to Pending). Public reviews can be archived. Pending reviews can be made public or archived. There's no time limit on any of these actions on the practitioner's side.

• The edit window and the multi-session re-open

  A client has a rolling 7-day window to edit their own review, starting from the day they submit it (and renewing every time they edit). Two things can close that window:

  • The practitioner publishes the comment (Pending → Public). Once a comment is live on the profile, the client can no longer edit normally.
  • The review auto-closes 60 days after the appointment date. After that, the review is permanently locked, even if the practitioner never publishes the comment.

  There's also an all-5★ instant-close: if the client gives every rating category 5 stars on their first submit, the review closes immediately and isn't editable at all. The 7-day window doesn't open for perfect ratings — perfect is final.

  On multi-session projects, there's one critical exception to the comment-locked rule. Every time the practitioner marks a new session on the same booking as completed, the client's edit window re-opens — even if the comment was already public on the profile. If the client edits in that re-opened window, the comment drops back to Pending and the practitioner has to publish it again before it reappears on their profile. This is what lets a client refine one review across a multi-session tattoo, rather than committing to a verdict after session 1 of 3.

• The studio review has its own rules

  The optional studio review (Cleanliness + Atmosphere + optional studio comment) is managed by the studio owner, not the practitioner. Two relevant differences from the practitioner review:

  • If the client leaves studio star ratings without writing a studio comment, the studio review is public on the studio's profile immediately — no approval step.
  • If the client leaves a studio comment alongside the ratings, the studio review lands as Pending for the studio owner to approve, mirroring how the practitioner review works.

  Studio owners get their own Reviews info card on the studio profile, with the same Pending / Public / Archived tabs. The practitioner working at a studio doesn't manage that studio's reviews — those belong to whoever owns the physical space.

Step by step

1. 1

   Open the booking once it's marked Ready to Review

   When the practitioner taps Mark as Completed on the post-appointment side, your booking moves out of Awaiting and into Bookings → Requests → Review → Completed, with a green Leave Review prompt on the session card. You also get a push notification (or an email, if you booked through the public web link without an app account) the moment the practitioner marks it.

   Tap the session card to open the booking detail page, then the Leave a Review button.

2. 2

   Rate the categories and (optionally) leave a comment

   The form asks for star ratings on the categories that match the practitioner's discipline. Tattoo and body-mod practitioners get Quality / Communication / Professionalism. Piercer, PMU, and laser-removal practitioners get Experience / Professionalism. Every category is required to submit.

   Below the practitioner section, a separate optional block asks about the studio — Cleanliness and Atmosphere. Skip it if you don't have a strong feeling about the venue.

   The written comment is optional on both sections. Star-only reviews are fine. You can also write a star + comment review for the practitioner and skip the studio one entirely.

3. 3

   After you submit — what's live, what's pending

   The moment you tap Submit, your star ratings join the practitioner's headline average on their profile. That part is automatic.

   Your written comment, however, lands as Pending on the practitioner's side. They can see it on their Reviews dashboard, but it isn't on their public profile yet. They have two choices: publish it (you'll get a notification telling you they did) or archive it (which is silent — you won't be notified). Until they act, your comment is private between the two of you.

   If you rated all categories 5 stars, your review is final — you can't edit it after submission. For any other rating mix, you have 7 days to keep editing your review (the window renews every time you edit). The window closes early if the practitioner publishes your comment.

4. 4

   If you want to update your review after a later session

   On a multi-session project (tattoo, body mod), the rules above have one important exception. Every time the practitioner marks a new session on the same booking as completed, your edit window re-opens — even if your comment was already public on their profile.

   Practically: leave a review whenever you want during the project, even after session 1 of 3. Then, as each subsequent session is marked, you can come back and refine your stars and your comment. If your comment was already public when you edit, it goes back to Pending and the practitioner has to publish the updated version again before it reappears on their profile.

   After 60 days from the original appointment date, the review closes for good and the multi-session re-open no longer applies. There's no edit path after that.

Frequently asked questions

I'm a client. I just submitted a glowing review, why isn't my comment showing on the practitioner's profile yet?

Because written comments land as Pending and stay that way until the practitioner taps Make Public. The star ratings you gave are already counted in their headline average, but the actual review card with your comment text only appears once they publish it. There's no deadline on their side, so it can sit in Pending for a while. You'll get a notification the moment they publish it.

I gave the wrong rating. Can I fix it?

Maybe — depends on a few things. If you rated all categories 5★, no: perfect reviews close immediately on submit. If you didn't, you have a rolling 7-day window from your last edit, as long as the practitioner hasn't made the comment public yet. Once they publish, the comment locks. The one exception is on multi-session projects: every new session the practitioner marks complete re-opens your edit window, even on a published comment. After 60 days from the appointment date, the window is closed for good either way.

I'm a client on a multi-session tattoo. Should I leave my review now or wait until the whole project is done?

Leave it whenever feels right. The system is built to let you update it as the project unfolds — every time your artist marks a new session complete, your edit window re-opens, even if your comment was already published. Updating a published comment drops it back to Pending and the artist has to publish the updated version again. So there's no "race" to leave one after session 1 of 3, and no penalty for leaving an early one and refining it later.

Can the practitioner edit what I wrote?

No. Your comment is yours. The practitioner can choose to publish it, leave it in Pending, or archive it (hide it from their public profile), but they cannot change a single word of what you wrote.

I'm a practitioner. Why does the headline rating on my profile already reflect a review I haven't published?

Because the star ratings always count, regardless of the comment's visibility state. The split exists so written reviews go through your approval (you decide what shows up next to your name) while the rating average stays honest and automatic. If a low-star review was unfair, archiving it hides the comment from your profile but won't remove its impact on the average.

I archived a review that the client originally saw published. Will they be told?

No. Archiving is silent on InkMap — the comment immediately disappears from your public profile but the client gets no notification. If they revisit your profile they might notice the change; if they don't, they won't know. That's by design — the public-facing change is yours to make without negotiating it.

I'm a client. The practitioner made my review public, but later I see the comment is gone from their profile. What happened?

Most likely they archived it. There's no notification on your side when that happens. If you cared enough to write the original review, you have a few choices: message them through the booking thread and ask, leave it alone, or — if you've had another session on the same booking that they've since marked complete — edit your review, which puts the comment back into Pending and forces them to decide again.

What's the difference between the practitioner review and the studio review?

They're two separate review entries on the same booking, with different owners. The practitioner review is managed by the practitioner — they decide whether the comment goes public. The studio review (Cleanliness + Atmosphere, optional) is managed by the studio owner — they decide whether the comment goes public. There's also a small asymmetry: if you leave studio star ratings without writing a studio comment, the studio review is public immediately, no approval needed. Add a studio comment and it goes through approval just like the practitioner review.

I'm a studio owner. Where do I manage studio reviews?

From the Reviews info card on the studio's profile. Same three tabs (Pending / Public / Archived), same set of actions. Only star ratings + comment combinations go through approval; star-only studio reviews appear directly on the Public tab from the start, since there's nothing to moderate.