How moderation works on InkMap

• Why community-driven, not AI

  Reviews and reports are decided by other users — practitioners on posts that tagged them, and community moderators in the matching discipline (a practitioner whose moderation trust reaches 10, or an admin-granted Moderation Admin who bypasses the discipline filter). We deliberately don't run a content classifier on your image: every public platform that has tried this ends up shadow-banning legitimate body art the model misreads as adult content — chest tattoos, hip pieces, healed nipple piercings. Real practitioners can tell the difference between body art on a body and a body that happens to be in the frame.

• How posts publish

  Practitioner and studio posts publish immediately. No review queue, no validation card, no review step at all. The trust is built into the account type: a practitioner is on InkMap to share their work, a studio is on InkMap to show its venue. Their posts can still be reported once live — anyone can report any post — but the post is fully published from the moment it's submitted.

  Collector posts go through review. A new collector's post is live the second they publish, and other users see it normally in feeds. In the background, someone confirms the content before the post is fully verified — the collector doesn't have to do anything while that happens, and the post stays visible the whole time. The next section walks through the paths a collector post can take.

  Trusted Collectors skip review too. Once a collector's trust reaches 10, their posts publish straight to the feed without entering review — same as practitioners and studios. See Community roles & trust for how that trust is earned.

• If you're publishing a collector post

  Your post enters a review path that depends on how you posted it:

  • Showcase a piece — you tagged at least one practitioner. The tagged practitioner(s) review the post.
  • Showcase without a practitioner — for work whose practitioner isn't on InkMap, or you don't know who did it. The post goes to community moderators in the same discipline (a tattoo post is reviewed by tattoo moderators, a piercing post by piercing moderators).
  • Collection / Model — full-body shots, model poses, multi-artist looks, convention coverage. Any community moderator can review these — they don't fork by discipline.

  If your post is rejected, it's hidden from public feeds (likes, comments, and bookmarks freeze where they were) and you take −1 collector trust. The rejection shows the reason and any note the reviewer left — the reviewer stays anonymous. You can dispute from the post itself: a Senior Moderator takes a fresh look at the original reasoning, your reply, and the post itself, and decides whether to reverse the rejection or keep it. If the rejection is reversed, the post returns to your feeds and your −1 is refunded; if it's kept, the rejection stands.

  Same logic applies to posts removed after a community report. If a community moderator or Senior Moderator removed your post following a report, you can dispute the removal — the Dispute Removal button appears on the rejected card and an admin reviews the call. Reversal restores the post; "Keep" leaves it down.

  One exception: any rejection or removal decided by an admin moderator (or Moderation Admin) is final. Admin moderators are the platform's escalation endpoint, so there's no higher tier to route a dispute to. The rejected card will say so explicitly and the dispute button won't be shown.

  If a tagged practitioner picks "I don't know", the post passes to a community moderator in the matching discipline — your post stays live, no penalty either way.

• If a collector tagged you in a Showcase-a-piece post

  When a collector tags you, you receive a notification with a validation card. The card has three buttons:

  • Accept — confirms the post is fine for the platform. The post's review clears, and you earn +1 moderation trust. (Approving a post that's later removed by report costs −2 moderation trust — see "What rejection or removal costs" below.)
  • I don't know — passes the content judgment to a discipline-matched moderator. Your tag stays attached during review. No penalty for you, no penalty for the collector, and no trust delta either way for you. Use this when you're not sure whether the post belongs on InkMap.
  • Reject — flags a guidelines violation. Pick a reason; the collector takes a −1 collector trust penalty (refundable if they successfully dispute the rejection). You also earn +1 moderation trust for the review — both Accept and Reject reward you the same; only I don't know is neutral. The reasons are: Exposed intimate parts, Violence or gore, Hate or offensive material, Not body art (landscape, product shot, still life), AI-generated, Spam or advertising, or Other with a short written note. Photo quality alone (blurry, bad lighting) isn't on the list and isn't a reason to reject.

  The validation card only judges the post's content — it does not commit you to publicly appearing on it. That's a separate decision asked on a Featured card that arrives on your Collabs page once validation succeeds. So if you've been mis-tagged but the post itself is fine, tap Accept (or I don't know) and decline the tag on the Featured card afterwards. See Tagging and reposting for what the Featured card does.

  For multi-practitioner posts, only one approval is needed for the post to clear validation. The first approval clears the post's review. Every tagged practitioner then receives their own Featured card to decide whether they want to publicly appear on the post.

• If you're a community moderator

  A practitioner reaches Community Moderator at 10 moderation trust (see Community roles & trust for the ladder). The role adds two queues to the practitioner's account:

  • Discipline-matched Showcase queue — Showcase-without-practitioner posts in your discipline only. A tattoo moderator only sees tattoo posts, a piercer only sees piercing posts. Matching is automatic from your practitioner type.
  • Collection / Model queue — multi-artist or full-body posts. Any community moderator can pick these up, regardless of discipline.

  The reason picker on a queue review is the same one tagged practitioners use above. I don't know is also available — it hands the post off to another community moderator in the same discipline (or to any community moderator on Collection / Model posts, since those don't filter by discipline). Senior Moderators only get involved when a moderator's decision needs confirmation or when a collector disputes a rejection — not on abstentions. Picking I don't know has no effect on your moderation trust either way.

  Reports also route to you. First moderator to act on a report decides keep-or-remove; a Senior Moderator (or admin) confirms or overturns the call. A confirmed call earns +1 moderation trust, an overturned call costs −2.

  If you approve a post — whether as a tagged practitioner or as a community moderator — and that post is later removed by an upheld report, you take −2 moderation trust for the bad validation. The penalty applies to every approver on multi-practitioner posts.

  A Moderation Admin is the same role granted out-of-band to non-practitioner operators (community managers, ops staff). It bypasses the discipline filter and the practitioner-only gate, so a Moderation Admin sees every queue across every discipline. The role is awarded explicitly — there's no organic ladder to reach it.

• Reports

  Anyone can report a post — collector, practitioner, studio. Tap the menu on the post and pick a reason: off-topic for the feed, fake / misrepresented work, AI-generated, exposed intimate parts, hate or violence, spam, or copyright / stolen artwork (someone used your tattoo design, flash, or photo without permission). Most reasons route to discipline-matched community moderators the same way Showcase reviews do — copyright is the one exception (see just below).

  Copyright / stolen artwork goes straight to admins. A copyright report is a legal ownership claim, not a community-taste call, so it skips the community-moderator queue entirely and goes directly to the platform's admins. Only an admin or a Moderation Admin can act on it — community moderators and Senior Moderators never decide copyright. InkMap doesn't judge who really owns the artwork: an admin reviews the claim, takes the post down if it stands, and the person who posted it keeps the normal Dispute Removal path to push back. You don't upload "proof" — you just flag it, and the admin handles it. (Rights-holders who aren't InkMap members — a photographer, a studio, an agency — can also send a copyright notice to the legal contact email listed in InkMap's Terms of Service.)

  Chain of command (all other reasons). The first moderator to pick up the report decides keep-or-remove. A Senior Moderator (or admin) then confirms or overturns the call. The reporter only earns the +2 valid-report bonus once the chain confirms the post was a violation; if the chain rules the post fine, no bonus is paid. The Senior Mod or admin who confirms (or directly resolves) the report also earns +1 moderation trust for the call — same shape of reward the community moderator earns, additive when both layers act on the same report.

  One re-report after a moderator says the post is fine. If a community moderator or Senior Moderator looked at a report and decided to keep the post, anyone (you, or someone else who also thinks the post crosses a line) can report the post one more time. That re-report skips the regular moderator queue and goes straight to an admin for a fresh look. After that admin review the call is final for everyone — no third report from regular users. Admins themselves can keep re-reviewing a post if they change their mind.

  Dispute of a report-driven removal — admin only. If your post was removed after a report, the Dispute Removal button on the rejected card always routes to an admin (not a Senior Moderator). Senior Moderators handle disputes of content-check rejections (the validation card flow above); report-driven removals are an admin-tier call.

  Admin and Moderation Admin decisions are final. If an admin moderator (or Moderation Admin) decides a reported post is fine, the report button stops showing for everyone except other admins. Same on the other side: an admin-decided removal can't be disputed by the post creator.

  Reporting carries weight both ways. An upheld report earns +2 moderation trust for the reporter. A false report costs −1 for a regular user, or −3 for a community moderator, senior moderator, or moderation admin — anyone reviewing other people's calls is held to a higher standard. Admins are exempt from both directions: no bonus, no penalty. At −5 moderation trust the report button is suspended for any account — collector, practitioner, studio, all the same; recovery is +1 per week automatically.

  Sock-puppet cap. Only the first two upheld reports against the same person per month earn the +2. Further reports against that person still remove the offending post; the reward is suppressed.

  When a call gets flipped later. Sometimes a report is upheld, the post comes down, and the original post creator disputes — and the admin agrees and republishes. Or a moderator dismisses a report, the post stays up, and somebody re-reports the post, and that re-report sticks. Either way, the trust scores treat the flip symmetrically: every party who got scored on the first call has that score wiped, then takes the opposite-side hit they would have taken if the second call had been the first.

  So if you reported a post and the report was upheld (you earned +2), and the post is later republished on dispute, the +2 is removed and you take the false-report penalty instead (−1 or −3 depending on your role). If a moderator dismissed a report (they earned +1) and the post is later removed on a re-report, that +1 is removed and they take −2 for the overturned call. Same logic in reverse for the dismiss → re-uphold direction. Senior Mods, community mods, validators (anyone who'd approved the post originally), and the creator themselves all round-trip through the same revoke-then-flip pattern. The audit history shows both rows — the original score and the reversal — so you can see exactly what changed. Notifications fire on the new outcome, not on the silent revoke.

  How it works after a dispute. If a post has been through a content-check dispute resolved by a Senior Moderator (whether the rejection was overturned or upheld) and the post is now live again, the very next report on it skips the regular community-moderator chain and routes directly to admin review. A Senior Mod already looked at this post, so the next escalation jumps a level — fewer cascade layers, less chance of multi-step reversals. Anyone can still report; the gate is on routing, not on who's allowed to file. After the admin handles that fast-tracked report, the post returns to the standard "an admin has decided" terminal state — no further reports are accepted.

• What rejection or removal costs

  Two penalty paths apply to posts that don't make it. They use different scales because they hit at different stages.

  Rejection at the content-check step (a tagged practitioner or moderator rejects a collector post during initial review):

  • −1 collector trust, regardless of which reason the reviewer picked.
  • The post is hidden from public feeds. Likes, comments, and bookmarks freeze where they were when the rejection landed.
  • The −1 is refunded if you successfully dispute the rejection.

  Removal after an upheld report (a published post — anyone's, not just collectors' — is reported and the chain confirms the removal):

  • First removed post: −2 posting trust, warning notification.
  • Second: −3, admin is notified.
  • Third: −8, posting is suspended. Recovery is +1 per week automatically.
  • Cross-penalty: every removed post also costs −1 moderation trust. If your judgment on your own posts is bad, your judgment on others' is too.
  • Approver penalty: anyone who approved the post — a tagged practitioner or a community moderator — takes −2 moderation trust for the bad validation. On multi-practitioner posts, every approver pays.

  The counter doesn't track you forever. It clears on either trigger: 60 clean days since your last removed post, or posting trust climbing back to 0 or above. After the reset, the next removed post is treated as a first-time offense again. Settings → Warnings & Trust shows your current count, the next penalty step, and your reset progress.

Frequently asked questions

I'm a practitioner. Does my post need validation?

No. Practitioner and studio posts publish immediately and don't enter the review system. They can still be reported once live, like anyone's posts.

Can anyone tell that my post is being reviewed?

No. While you're a new collector (less than 10 collector trust), a new post is checked in the background before it's confirmed. Other users see the post normally and can like, comment, and bookmark it the whole time, and you don't need to do anything — it's confirmed once the right person approves it.

I tagged a practitioner and nothing happened.

They might not have seen the notification yet, or might be inactive. If too much time goes by, the post is picked up by a moderator instead. If the practitioner you tagged isn't on InkMap at all, post via "Showcase without a practitioner" — a moderator in the right discipline reviews it directly.

I just got a validation notification — what happens if I do nothing?

The card stays on your Collabs page. The post is already live during review, so the collector isn't blocked, but the post stays in review until someone — you, another tagged practitioner, or a moderator if no one acts — resolves it.

Does approving a tagged post mean I'm publicly tagged on it?

No. Approval is the content check only. Whether you appear on the post publicly is a separate decision, asked on a Featured card on your Collabs page after validation. You can approve and still decline to be featured, or approve and accept the tag — they're independent calls.

Can I see who rejected my post?

Not by name. The rejection shows the reason and any note the reviewer left, but the reviewer stays anonymous. If you think the call was wrong, the dispute system is there for that.

Why does discipline matter for moderation?

A great tattoo artist doesn't necessarily know what a healed conch piercing looks like, or what a fresh PMU brow should look like before it heals. Discipline-matched moderation means the people judging your post actually do that work.

Why isn't this AI-driven, like other platforms?

Generic content filters flag legitimate body art on the parts of the body where it lives — chest, hip, healed piercings. AI moderation on that content history has been a disaster for working artists across the industry. Real practitioners in your discipline can tell the difference between a tattoo on a body and a body that happens to be in the frame.

Someone posted my tattoo design / flash / photo without permission. What do I do?

Report the post and pick Copyright / stolen artwork. That report skips the community moderators and goes straight to an admin, who reviews it and takes the post down if the claim stands — the person who posted it can then dispute it like any other removal. You don't need to upload proof. If you're not an InkMap member but your work was used, you can email the legal contact listed in the Terms of Service instead.

Will the person who stole the artwork be penalized?

If an admin upholds the report and removes the post, yes — the uploader takes the standard removed-post penalty on their posting trust (−2, then −3, then a posting suspension on repeat offenses), exactly like any other removed post. Nothing happens to them from the report alone; the penalty only lands once an admin actually removes the post.

How do I become a moderator?

Read Community roles & trust — it walks through the trust ladders, what each step unlocks, and why the organic Moderator / Senior Moderator path is reserved for practitioner accounts (with Moderation Admin as the out-of-band path for trusted non-practitioners).