Finding a guest spot on the map
How a tattoo artist uses the map's Guest Spots filter to find tattoo studios that can host them — searching by date window and minimum days in a row, plus the cut, chair-rental, hours, advertising, and client filters.
This guide is for tattoo artists looking for their next guest spot. Instead of opening studios one by one to ask whether they can host you, the Map has a Guest Spots filter that narrows the map to tattoo studios set up to take a guest — and, if you tell it your dates, to the ones that actually have room.
Searching is free for artists. Once you've found a studio, see Requesting a guest spot for sending the request.
Guest spots are tattoo-only, so this filter only ever shows tattoo studios.
Step by step
- 1
Open the Guest Spots filter
On the Map, open the filters and go to the Tattoo tab. It has two sub-tabs: Style (find artists by tattoo style) and Guest Spots. Tap Guest Spots.
The moment you set anything in this filter, "Tattoo Studio" is switched on in your Type filter for you, so the map shows studios. (If you later turn "Tattoo Studio" off, the Guest Spots filter clears — the two go together.)
If you just want to see everyone who hosts — no dates, no other criteria — flip on "Only studios that host guests" at the top of the panel. That alone narrows the map to every studio set up to welcome guests; the options below are there only when you want to narrow it further.
- 2
Set your dates (optional)
Tap Guest spot dates and pick a window on the calendar — for example, the two weeks you'll be in a city. Leave it blank to just browse every studio that can host, with no date check.
- 3
Set the minimum days in a row (optional)
Tell the filter how long a gap you need — for example, 5 days in a row. A studio only matches if, somewhere inside your window, it has that many days back to back where each day still has a free guest slot. Leave it at "Any single day" and a single open day is enough.
This is the core "do they have room for me?" question. It deliberately doesn't try to paint exactly which dates are open — you say how long a stretch you need, and you get a yes/no match.
- 4
Narrow by terms (optional)
Below the dates you can add money and preference filters. Each is optional — leave one blank to ignore it:
- Maximum studio cut — only show studios whose commission is at or below the percentage you set. Studios that rent out a chair instead of taking a cut have no commission to compare, so they drop out when you set a cut limit.
- Maximum chair rental — for studios that rent a chair, the most you'd pay per day and/or per week. Pick a currency for your limit; studios priced in another currency are converted so they can be compared. These amounts are approximate — treat them as a guide, not an exact price.
- Flexible hours — only studios that say you can set your own working hours.
- Promotes guest artists — only studios that say they advertise their visiting artists.
- Connects you with clients — only studios that say they can help line up clients for you.
> Heads up: the last three — flexible hours, promotes guests, connects with clients — are each the studio's own claim, not a guarantee from InkMap. We don't verify or enforce them. Treat them as a starting point and confirm the details with the studio when you reach out.
- 5
Read the results
Matching studios appear as normal pins on the map and as normal studio cards in the results strip — the same look as every other filter. Tap a studio to open its profile, check its full guest terms, and send a guest request.
Why a studio might not show up
A tattoo studio only appears in the Guest Spots results when it is genuinely set up and paying to host. Specifically, all of these must be true:
- It subscribes to the Guest Management module (the paid feature that lets a studio host guests).
- It has switched guest hosting on (its "accept guest artists" setting is on).
- It has a currency and at least one guest price set (a daily rate, a weekly rate, or a commission).
- It has room for at least one guest (its guest capacity is above zero).
On top of that, if you set a date window it must have a free run of days that meets your "days in a row" requirement, and it must pass whichever of the cut / chair-rental / hours / advertising / clients filters you've switched on.
If a studio you know fails to appear, it most likely hasn't turned on guest hosting or finished its guest settings yet — you can still open its profile and message it, which sends it a nudge that an artist wanted to guest there.
A note on availability
The filter counts a day as free using the studio's confirmed guests only. Requests a studio hasn't accepted yet aren't subtracted, so a very busy studio with lots of pending requests can look slightly more open than it really is. Confirm your exact dates with the studio before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to pay to use the Guest Spots filter?
No. Searching for and requesting guest spots is free for tattoo artists. The paid side is the studio's Guest Management subscription. (There's a separate optional add-on for artists, Guest Spot Reach, that promotes your confirmed spots — that's unrelated to searching.)
- I set "Connects you with clients" — does InkMap guarantee I'll get clients?
No. That toggle, like "Flexible hours" and "Promotes guest artists", just filters to studios that have said they offer it. It's the studio's own claim, not something InkMap checks or promises.
- Why are chair-rental amounts "approximate"?
Studios set their prices in their own currency. To compare them against the limit you typed, InkMap converts each one using approximate exchange rates — fine for a rough "show me studios under about this much", but not an exact quote. The real price is whatever the studio's terms say.
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