Inkdex has strong technical differentiation (visual search, trained embeddings) but positioning is generic. Currently positioned as "find tattoo artists" which doesn't highlight unique capabilities.
Visual search engine for tattoos - upload an image, find artists who work in that style
People looking for tattoo artists by specific style + location, especially those frustrated with Instagram's poor geographic search
Pinterest is where people PLAN tattoos. Reddit is where they BROWSE.
Your Reddit ad experiment got exposure but minimal conversions. Meanwhile, Pinterest has thousands of monthly saves on tattoo style searches — high-intent users actively planning their next tattoo. You're invisible on the platform where your customers actually make decisions.
Why it matters: You're spending on channels that can't convert while ignoring where your customers actually plan.
Reddit city sub monitoring + helpful responses
Set up monitoring for Reddit city subreddits and r/tattoo threads to respond helpfully to "looking for [style] artist in [city]" posts
Add "Shazam for tattoos" to homepage hero
Update homepage messaging to emphasize visual search capability with Product Hunt social proof
Set up Google Search Console tracking for programmatic pages
Configure GSC to track indexing status, crawl errors, and keyword rankings for programmatic pages
Leverage Product Hunt social proof in marketing
Add Product Hunt badges, reviews, and testimonials to homepage and other marketing materials
Create 5 TikTok visual search demo videos
Create short videos demonstrating image upload to artist results flow, emphasizing speed and accuracy
Follow up on backlink outreach warm leads
Send personalized follow-up emails to backlink outreach recipients who opened or clicked initial emails
Create landing pages for trending styles (fine line, geometric)
Build dedicated landing pages for most-requested tattoo styles with optimized content and artist listings
Build email capture for "notify me when [city] has more artists"
Add email signup for cities with low artist coverage to capture demand and notify when coverage improves
Weekly unique visitors
500
Reddit referral traffic
150
TikTok profile visits
500
Google organic sessions
20
Searches performed
200
Image uploads
50
Tattoodo Shut Down Booking Platform
Tattoodo cancelled their booking platform in 2023, leaving artists who got 60% of their clients from there scrambling for alternatives. They've pivoted to content-only model.
Creates acquisition opportunity for artist side of marketplace - they need alternative client acquisition channels
City Subreddits Drive Daily Tattoo Requests
People post "[city] + tattoo artist recommendations" threads daily in city subreddits, getting 10-50+ engaged comments. Nobody is systematically responding with tool recommendations.
First-mover advantage available for consistent, helpful responses in high-intent communities
Instagram Algorithm Collapse Hurting Artists
Artists with 40K followers report only getting 200 likes. Instagram optimizes for entertainment, not professional discovery, causing massive engagement drops for tattoo artists.
Artists are desperate for alternative client acquisition channels, making them more receptive to new platforms
TikTok Visual Search Content Performs Well
Tattoo content performs strongly on TikTok, and visual search demos are inherently shareable. 15-second "found my artist in 5 seconds" videos have viral potential.
High-potential organic reach channel that aligns perfectly with Inkdex's visual search differentiator
Industry in Economic Contraction
Artists report 2024-2025 as "by far the worst the industry has been" with previously booked-out artists now struggling to fill their next week.
Artists are cost-sensitive but desperate for any working client acquisition channel
Inkdex enters a market with validated demand but entrenched competition. Tattoodo (1.36M monthly organic visits), TattoosWizard (318K), and iNKPPL (357K) dominate search traffic through years of content accumulation and domain authority. Your programmatic SEO approach is sound, but at 3 weeks old with 6 ranking keywords and near-zero organic traffic, you are competing against sites with 18K-73K ranking keywords. The Google indexing bottleneck is real and will persist for 3-6 months regardless of what you do.
However, the market has fractures you can exploit. Tattoodo shut down its booking platform in 2023, leaving artists scrambling for client acquisition channels. Reddit threads from the past 6 months show artists describing 2024-2025 as "by far the worst the industry has been" with Instagram engagement at "astonishing lows." Meanwhile, clients post in city subreddits daily asking for style-specific artist recommendations - the exact problem you solve. The pain is real on both sides.
Your acquisition strategy should not wait for Google. The immediate play is demand capture where people already search: Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram. You need to become the answer to "how do I find a [style] artist in [city]" questions that appear in city subreddits every single day. Simultaneously, accelerate Google trust through backlinks from tattoo publications, guest posting, and HARO responses. Your "Shazam for tattoos" image-upload feature is a genuine differentiator - none of your competitors offer true visual search. Lead with that in all positioning.
Update: With your Product Hunt launch and backlink outreach already completed, you've accelerated two key credibility-building activities. This frees up Week 2 bandwidth for deeper TikTok investment and more aggressive Reddit engagement.
| Stage | Current State | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | <100 users, ~0 organic traffic, paid ads paused, Product Hunt launched | Critical gap closing. PH provides initial credibility + backlinks. No scalable acquisition channel working yet. |
| Activation | "Everybody who USES it as a client loves it" | Strong signal. Product-market fit exists for users who find you. |
| Retention | Unknown | Likely low - tattoo search is infrequent (most people get 1-3 tattoos/year). Usage is transactional, not habitual. |
| Referral | Unknown | Untested. Natural referral moment exists when friends ask "where'd you find that artist?" |
| Revenue | Not mentioned | Unknown monetization model. Likely future: artist subscriptions, booking fees, or lead generation. |
Diagnosis: You have a product problem disguised as an acquisition problem. The product works, but you have no repeatable way to get people to it. Your programmatic SEO bet is correct but on a 6-month timeline. You need bridge strategies that work now. The completed Product Hunt launch and backlink outreach give you a foundation of credibility and domain authority signals - now convert that into traffic.
Direct Competitors
| Competitor | Strengths | Weaknesses | Threat Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tattoodo | Massive traffic (1.36M/mo), brand recognition, content library | Shut down booking platform, moving to content-only model, users complain it's "unavailable in most cities" | Medium - they're retreating from discovery |
| TattoosWizard | Strong SEO (318K/mo), price calculator, artist profiles | No visual search, basic filtering, generic directory feel | High - similar positioning |
| iNKPPL | Good traffic (357K/mo), editorial content, magazine-style | Focused on tattoo culture, not search/discovery | Medium |
| INKsearch | Booking platform, European focus | Smaller traffic (5.2K/mo), limited US presence | Low |
| Booksy/Yelp | General booking infrastructure | Not tattoo-specialized, no style search | Low |
Your Differentiation
| Feature | Inkdex | Competitors |
|---|---|---|
| Visual/image search | Yes (trained embeddings) | No |
| Semantic text search | Yes | Basic keyword only |
| Auto-generated portfolios | Yes (scraped) | Artists must manually upload |
| Artist count | 25,000 | TattoosWizard: Unknown, Tattoodo: ~5,000 active |
| Search speed | Sub-2s | Varies |
Your moat is technical: Image-based semantic search is genuinely hard. Competitors would need to build ML infrastructure to replicate. This is your lead-with feature.
| Channel | Potential | Effort | Timeline | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit (city subs) | High | Medium | Immediate | 1 |
| TikTok organic | High | Medium | 2-4 weeks | 2 |
| SEO (programmatic) | Very High | Already built | 3-6 months | 3 |
| ~~Product Hunt launch~~ | ~~Medium~~ | ~~Low~~ | ~~1 week~~ | ~~4~~ DONE |
| Artist referrals | Medium | High | 2-3 months | 4 |
| ~~Backlink outreach~~ | ~~Medium~~ | ~~Medium~~ | ~~Ongoing~~ | ~~6~~ DONE |
| Instagram organic | Low | High | 4+ weeks | 5 |
| Paid ads | Low | High | Not now | Paused |
Channel Explanations
Reddit (city subreddits) - Highest immediate potential. People post "looking for [style] tattoo artist in [city]" constantly. You can respond helpfully with your tool. Not spammy if done right. Target: r/[city], r/tattoo, r/tattooadvice. This is manual but high-conversion.
TikTok organic - Visual search demos are inherently shareable. 15-second video: "Found my tattoo artist in 5 seconds" showing image upload -> results. Low production cost, high potential reach. Tattoo content performs well on TikTok. With Product Hunt and backlink work done, this becomes your primary Week 2 focus.
SEO (programmatic) - Your foundation is built. Now it's a waiting game + trust acceleration. Don't abandon, but don't expect results for 3-6 months. Your completed backlink outreach helps accelerate indexing.
Product Hunt - COMPLETED. Leverage any reviews, testimonials, or social proof from the launch in your other marketing materials.
Artist referrals - Long-term play. Artists won't promote you until they've gotten clients from you. Chicken-and-egg problem. Solve by driving client traffic first, then approaching artists with proof.
Backlink outreach - COMPLETED. Monitor results - check Google Search Console for new referring domains and track any response from your outreach. Follow up on warm leads.
- Stop paid ads entirely. At your stage with an unproven funnel, paid ads burn cash. Your conversion rate is unknown, your landing pages aren't optimized, and you're competing against sites with years of retargeting data. Revisit in 6 months when you have organic traction and can afford proper testing.
- Stop DMing artists as your primary strategy. Artists are bombarded with pitches. Your response rate will stay low until you can show them clients. Flip the script: acquire clients first, then approach artists with "we sent you 5 leads this month, want to claim your profile?"
- Stop waiting for Google. You correctly built programmatic SEO, but treating it as your only strategy leaves you with no traffic for months. SEO is a foundation, not a launch channel.
- Stop generic positioning. "Find tattoo artists" doesn't differentiate you. "Upload a tattoo photo, find artists who work in that style" is specific and memorable. Lead with the visual search capability in all messaging.
- Stop ignoring Reddit. You're leaving the highest-intent, easiest-to-reach users on the table. People asking "how do I find a [style] artist in [city]" are your exact users, already assembled and asking for help.
| Action | Impact | Confidence | Ease | ICE Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit city sub monitoring + helpful responses | 9 | 8 | 7 | 24 | Active |
| Add "Shazam for tattoos" to homepage hero | 7 | 8 | 9 | 24 | Do Now |
| Set up Google Search Console tracking for programmatic pages | 5 | 9 | 9 | 23 | Do Now |
| Create 5 TikTok visual search demo videos | 8 | 6 | 7 | 21 | Week 1-2 |
| ~~Launch on Product Hunt~~ | ~~6~~ | ~~7~~ | ~~8~~ | ~~21~~ | DONE |
| Create landing pages for trending styles (fine line, geometric) | 7 | 7 | 6 | 20 | Week 2 |
| ~~HARO + backlink outreach for tattoo/tech coverage~~ | ~~7~~ | ~~6~~ | ~~6~~ | ~~19~~ | DONE |
| Build email capture for "notify me when [city] has more artists" | 6 | 6 | 7 | 19 | Week 3 |
| Leverage Product Hunt social proof in marketing | 6 | 8 | 9 | 23 | Do Now |
| Follow up on backlink outreach warm leads | 6 | 7 | 8 | 21 | Week 2 |
| Stage | Metric | Week 1 Target | Week 4 Target | Measurement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition | Weekly unique visitors | 100 | 500 | Google Analytics |
| Acquisition | Reddit referral traffic | 20 | 150 | GA referral report |
| Acquisition | TikTok profile visits | 50 | 500 | TikTok analytics |
| Acquisition | Google organic sessions | 0 | 20 | GA organic report |
| Acquisition | Product Hunt referral traffic | Track | Track | GA referral report |
| Acquisition | New backlinks from outreach | Track | 5+ | GSC + Ahrefs/manual |
| Activation | Searches performed | 20 | 200 | Internal tracking |
| Activation | Image uploads | 5 | 50 | Internal tracking |
| Activation | Artist profile views | 50 | 400 | Internal tracking |
| Retention | Return visitors (7-day) | Unknown | Establish baseline | GA |
| Referral | Organic mentions/shares | 0 | 5 | Social listening |
| Revenue | N/A (pre-revenue) | - | - | - |
Template 1: Reddit Response (City Subreddit)
For threads like: "Looking for fine line tattoo artist in [City]"
Response:
Great style choice. A few suggestions for finding artists in [City]:
- Check Instagram hashtags like #[city]tattoo and #[city]fineline, but it's tedious since IG isn't built for search
- Ask the shops directly - most have multiple artists with different specialties
- I've been using inkdex.io recently - you can filter by style and city, or even upload a reference image to find artists who do similar work. Found a couple solid [style] artists there for [City]
Main thing is to look at healed work, not just fresh. Good luck with the search.
Notes: Keep it helpful first. Don't lead with your product. Mention it as one of several options. This builds trust and avoids looking spammy.
Template 2: TikTok Script (Visual Search Demo)
Format: 15-30 second screen recording with voiceover
Hook (0-3s): "Finding a tattoo artist used to take me hours. Now it takes 5 seconds."
Demo (3-20s): [Screen recording of Inkdex]
- "See this tattoo I love? I upload the image..."
- [Show upload process]
- "...and instantly get artists who do this exact style, in my city."
- [Show results with artist work]
CTA (20-25s): "Link in bio. It's free."
On-screen text: "How I found my tattoo artist in 5 seconds" / "Shazam for tattoos" / "inkdex.io"
Template 3: Backlink Follow-up Email
For following up on your completed outreach:
Subject: Following up: Inkdex for your [article topic] piece
Body:
Hi [Name],
I reached out last week about Inkdex - the visual search engine for finding tattoo artists by style.
Quick update: We just launched on Product Hunt and got [X upvotes/featured]. Happy to share any data or quotes that might be useful for your readers.
Our visual search feature (upload a tattoo photo, find artists who do that style) is still unique in the market - no other directory offers it.
Let me know if you'd like a quick demo or screenshots.
Best,
[Your name]
Template 4: Artist Claim Email
For Week 4 artist outreach:
Subject: Your Inkdex profile got [X] views this month
Body:
Hi [Artist name],
I'm [Your name] from Inkdex. Your portfolio showed up in [X] searches on our platform this month - people looking for [style] artists in [city].
We auto-created your profile from your Instagram so clients can find you. Right now it links to your IG, but you can claim it (free) to:
- Add your booking link directly
- Update your bio and contact info
- Get notified when someone favorites your work
Claim your profile here: [link]
The tattoo industry is rough right now with Instagram's algorithm changes. We're trying to build a better way for clients to find artists like you.
Questions? Just reply.
[Your name]
Inkdex