What the map pins mean

• Studio pins

  A studio shows as a pin coloured by its discipline — tattoo, piercing, makeup, body mod, or laser. Tap it to open the studio's sheet with its address, team, and any events or jobs it's running.

• Independent practitioner pins

  A practitioner who works on their own (not out of a studio) shows as a round pin, coloured by their discipline. Tap it to open a card that links to their profile. How precisely an independent practitioner's pin sits, and how much of their address shows, is their own choice — see Independent location privacy levels. Studios always show their full shop address.

• Clusters

  When you zoom out, pins that are close together merge into a single cluster pin. This keeps a busy area readable. Zoom in to break it back apart, or tap the cluster to open its details.

  The number in the centre is how many map pins are grouped there — not how many people. Each studio, each solo practitioner, and each off-site event counts as one. Team members at a studio do not get their own number; they sit on that studio's pin. On-site events and job offers do not add an extra pin either.

  The coloured ring shows which practitioner disciplines are in the area — orange for tattoo, blue for piercing, red for laser, purple for body mod, pink-magenta for makeup (PMU). That comes from solo practitioner pins plus team members at the studios inside the cluster. The ring does not show studio shop types, events, or job offers:

  • Events — if anything in the cluster is an event, the whole cluster pin gets a soft pink glow (same idea as a glowing studio pin). No pink slice on the ring — that would clash with PMU.
  • Job offers — shown as the blue briefcase badge on individual studio pins when you zoom in, not on the cluster ring — blue is already piercing.

  Each discipline colour gets equal space on the ring so one type doesn't vanish when another dominates — slice size is for visibility, not a headcount. Open the cluster popup for full lists and proportional charts.

• Inside a cluster (the cluster details popup)

  Tapping a cluster opens a popup that breaks the area down without making you zoom around:

  • Three summary circles at the top — Studios (by shop type), Practitioners (everyone bookable in the area, including studio teams), and News (events in pink, jobs in blue). These go deeper than the map pin; the ring on the map is practitioners only.
  • Sections below list the actual Studios, Professionals, Events, and Jobs in the cluster as cards you can tap.
  • Map filters already apply — what landed in this cluster matches your current map filters. Inside the popup you can narrow further: studio-type chips and search under Studios, practitioner-type chips and search under Professionals, and studio checkboxes to focus on one shop's team, events, and jobs. Tick more than one studio to compare. Clear selection removes all ticks.

• The pink glow

  A studio running a live event gets a soft pulsing pink glow around its pin, so an area that's "happening right now" stands out. The pink glow is always visible whenever the studio has a live event you can see — it does not depend on which map filters you have turned on. Tapping an off-site event pin opens that event's page.

• The hiring badge

  A studio with an open job offer carries a small blue briefcase badge on its pin. Open the studio's sheet and check its News tab to see what it's hiring for.

Frequently asked questions

Two studios are right next to each other but I only see one pin — where's the other?

They've merged into a cluster because they're close together at your current zoom. Zoom in and both pins appear.

Why is one studio glowing pink?

It has a live event on. The pink glow fades once the event is over. You see it regardless of your map filters — filters only narrow which studios and events appear, not whether a visible event glows.