Filtering the map

• The idea in one line

  Type decides what kinds of things show up — and ticking more Types shows more, never fewer. Style and Quality don't add anything; they only trim what Type already brought in. Quality comes in two flavours: one judges the people, the other judges the studio itself.

• Type — what kinds of pins to show (ticking more shows more)

  The first tab. Pick which kinds of pins you want:

  • Professionals — practitioners by discipline: tattoo, piercing, makeup, body mod, laser. This includes solo practitioners and people who work at a studio (you reach employed practitioners through their studio's pin).
  • Studios — shops, by the same disciplines.
  • News — two toggles: Events and Job Offers. Events shows studios in the area you're viewing that are running a matching event plus off-site events as their own pins when those events fall inside your current map view. Job Offers shows studios in view that have an open listing (blue briefcase badge). Event date and type filters further narrow what counts as a match. Note: a studio's pink event glow is always on when it has a live event you can see — the Events toggle decides whether that studio appears on the map at all, not whether the glow shows.

  Each button shows a live count of how many are in the area you're viewing. Turn on as many as you like — every Type you tick is its own separate group, and they're added together. Ticking Piercers and Tattoo Studios shows all the piercers plus all the tattoo studios — not "only piercers who work in a tattoo studio".

  One thing to know: a studio Type only ever brings in studios, and a practitioner Type only ever brings in practitioners. They never get mixed into each other's results.

• How practitioners show up on the map (on their own, or through a studio)

  • A solo practitioner has their own pin.
  • A practitioner who works at a studio shows up through that studio's pin — there's no separate pin floating beside the shop. Tap the studio to see its team.

  That's why picking a practitioner Type can still put studios on your map: that's simply where those employed practitioners physically are. It's the only way to reach them.

  When your filters match specific people, those people are highlighted so they stand out — both in the little team bubbles that appear around a studio when you zoom right in, and on the Team tab inside a studio's sheet when you tap its pin.

• Style — narrows tattoo artists only

  Tattoo styles — black & grey, realism, dark fantasy, and so on. Style is a tattoo idea, so it only narrows the tattoo-artist side: solo tattoo artists, and studios that are showing because they employ a matching tattoo artist. It doesn't touch piercers, laser, makeup or body-mod, and it doesn't hide a studio you picked from the Studios Type list — pick "Tattoo Studios" and you'll still see every tattoo studio, whatever Style is set.

  > For an artist to be found by Style, they need to set their styles in their Specializations & Style info card — see Specializations, style & equipment cards. If they haven't filled that in, a Style filter won't surface them.

  Leave Style empty to ignore it.

• Quality — two tabs: Practitioners and Studios

  The Quality tab is split in two, because "good" means different things for a person and for a place.

  Practitioners — judges the people. Minimum average rating, minimum reviews, minimum followers, minimum years of experience, languages spoken, and following only (the accounts you already follow — you'll need to be signed in). Set any of these and only practitioners who clear the bar remain. A studio still shows when it holds someone who clears the bar and is a discipline you searched for — so a great artist is never hidden just because their shop is quiet.

  Studios — judges the place itself. Three sliders: the studio's own average rating, its own number of reviews, and its own followers. This looks at the studio as a place (its cleanliness-and-atmosphere reviews and its own following), not at how its artists are rated — so a studio is never penalised for hosting apprentices who are still building their ratings. To use it, pick a studio Type (e.g. Tattoo Studios) and set the sliders. Heads up: very few studios have been reviewed yet, so this tab will show little until ratings build up over time.

  The two tabs work independently. A studio can appear because the place is highly rated, or because it holds a great person of a type you searched for — neither one cancels the other out.

• The heart button — following on top of your filters

  Next to Filters on the map bar is a heart. It's the same as Following only in the Quality tab — a quick toggle.

  • With other filters active (a practitioner Type, Style, rating, and so on), the heart narrows that setup to accounts you follow. Example: Tattoo Artists + heart → followed tattoo artists and the studios where they work, not every tattoo artist in town.
  • With only the heart on (nothing else set), you see everyone you follow — practitioners and studios.
  • The heart does not hide Events or Job Offers. Those stay visible when you've ticked those News types, even if you don't follow the studio — most people follow practitioners, not shops, and events are worth surfacing anyway.

  You must be signed in for the heart to work.

• Events

  Filter the events on the map by date — a range or specific days — and by event type.

• Jobs

  Filter the open job offers on the map by job type.

• The map vs the results list (the one deliberate difference)

  A results list also slides up from the bottom showing the matches for your current filters. The map and the list follow the same rules, with one intended difference:

  • The map answers "where are the things I want?" — so a studio pin can appear whenever it holds someone you searched for, whatever kind of studio it is.
  • The list is a tidy run of cards by category — so studio cards only appear for the studio Types you actually ticked, and people always show as their own cards (never folded into a studio card).

• Inside a cluster popup

  Tapping a cluster pin opens a popup that breaks the area down into Studios, Professionals, Events, and Jobs. Your map filters already decided what could land in that cluster. Inside the popup you can narrow further — studio-type chips, search boxes, and studio checkboxes to focus on one shop's team and listings. See What the map pins mean for the full rundown.

• Seeing and clearing what's active

  Every filter you set shows up as a removable chip in the active-filters row — including any studio-quality sliders, grouped under their own Studios label. Tap a chip's × to drop just that one, or use Clear All to reset everything. Tap a card in the results list to open that profile.

• Saving filter sets

  If there's a combination you use often, tap the bookmark icon in the filter sheet to save it with a name. Saved sets appear in the presets row above the map, so you can reload a whole set in one tap instead of rebuilding it each time. You can also save your current map position alongside the filters, and manage or rename your saved sets later.

Frequently asked questions

I ticked a practitioner type and studios appeared too — is that wrong?

No. Practitioners who work at a studio are reached through that studio's pin, so the studio shows up to lead you to them. Tap the studio to see the team.

I added a second Type but the map didn't add anything — why?

Types are added together, so a new Type can only show more. If nothing new appeared, there simply aren't any of that kind in the area you're viewing (the count next to each Type is how many you've ticked, not how many are nearby). Note that Style only affects tattoo artists, so it won't hide the other types you pick.

I set a minimum studio rating and almost nothing shows. Is it broken?

Probably not — the Studios quality tab judges studios on their own reviews, and very few studios have been reviewed yet. It'll fill in as ratings build up. The Practitioners tab is the one to use for now.

I set filters on the map but my feed looks the same — is that a bug?

No. Map filters and feed filters are completely separate. Setting one never changes the other.

Why is the Following filter asking me to sign in?

Following-only shows accounts you follow, which only exists once you're signed in. Sign in and the toggle works.

I turned on the heart but I still see events — shouldn't those hide?

No. The heart only trims people (practitioners and studios-as-accounts-you-follow). Events and job offers on the map are separate — they stay visible when you've selected those News types.