How-To: Make Booking Flash Easier Through the Flash Shop

Sarah Micheletti

Jul. 31, 2025

Mind Your Ink Platform

Artist Resources

We developed the Flash Shop to help create a one-stop shop for clients to browse and book your flash more quickly than a traditional form.

This post goes over how to get your Flash Shop setup and how best to use auto and smart features.

If you prefer following a video instead of reading, check out video versions on YouTube:

• Everything about the Mind Your Ink flash shop (~22 min, desktop example)
• Basics of uploading flash (~1.5 min, mobile example)
• Bulk uploading flash (~1.5 min, mobile example)
• Flash shop smart statuses (~3 min, mobile example)

Basics of the Flash Shop

Step 1: Image Upload

Size Requirements

If exporting from Procreate or another program where you have control over the pixel sizing, here are the sizes we recommended to accommodate all devices. 

• Ideally 1200x1200 pixels recommended.
• Minimum 700x700 pixels recommended. Smaller is possible, but might look a tad pixelated at the max sizes for phones and tablets.

Image Cropping Ratio

After consulting with Mind Your Ink tattoo artists, for uniformity of the user interface, we've chosen to restrict all flash display to a square 1:1 aspect ratio. You can upload a horizontal or vertical image, but the site will crop it and just display a square version of it with the crop defaulting to centering on an image.

One Piece or Many Per Image?

We highly recommend having a single flash piece per image, unless your whole sheet has all the exact same details (size, color, cost, etc) and is all repeatable. If you mark a flash sheet as non-repeatable, when intending to convey that each piece is non repeatable, once you book a single appointment for one of the pieces of flash, it will mark as sold-out. In this scenario, it's better to export and upload each flash piece as individual images, and use bulk-upload to quickly apply the same details to all of them.

Step 2: Flash details

On step 2, you'll set up the flash details, which are always editable in the future. We're basically syncing the flash with a booking window and setting the information that a client would typically enter on "Step 2: Tattoo Details" on the typical Mind Your Ink appointment request form.

Title (optional)

Give your flash a name, if you'd like!

Repeatability

A true/false toggle, can this piece of flash be repeated or is it a one-time-only tattoo? This will determine if we auto-handle "sold out" status for the piece of flash. If marked as non-repeatable, multiple people can request it, but once book as an appointment, it will be marked as "sold out" and not bookable.

Arms-and-legs Only

If you turn on this placement restriction, it will show as "arms and legs only" to clients, and they will be prompted to check a box acknowledging that they agree to that for placement.

If left off, clients can write-in anything for placement, just like in your typical Mind Your Ink appointment request form.

Color Options

Select one or more color options based on your typical color settings. At least one color option is required. If only one color option, the client will be prompted to check a box acknowledging that they agree to this color.

Booking Window

Each flash piece must be associated with a booking window so clients will get relevant payment, deposit, location, and appointment reminder content. This is particularly helpful for scenarios like flash days or fundraising events where specific flash is only available for that day or event.

For now, a piece can only be associated with a single booking window, but we're going to add the ability to associate it with multiple.

Size, Cost, and Time Estimates

You choose a minimum and maximum size, and the client will be prompted to write in what size they're thinking of within that range.

Cost and time estimates help clients know what to expect ahead of time when considering requesting that piece of flash and providing their availability. Minimum cost and time estimates are required, maximum estimates are optional.

Step 3: Publish (or not)

If you drop out at any point of this stepped process, your flash piece(s) will be saved in an "unpublished" status. We recognize that sometimes you've got to stop a task in the middle of it, so we wanted a way to save your in-progress work.

If you're ready to publish, review on step 3 and hit "publish" for it to go live to clients! More on auto-statuses like "unpublished" below after the Bulk Upload section.

Bulk Upload

For speed of upload, you have the option of choosing multiple images as a time when uploading flash.

When you're bulk uploading multiple pieces where each has different details, you'll be taken through the details form one-by-one, and each piece of flash will be independent.

When you're bulk uploading multiple pieces that all have the same details, select the "Use same settings for all flash in this bulk upload batch" checkbox to only have to fill out the details once. This will apply the title (optional), repeatability, placement, color, size, time, and cost estimates to all of the images you're uploading.

If you choose to apply the same settings, you can always go back and edit each piece individually or as a batch. You'll be prompted to "Choose edit scope" when you go to edit a piece of flash from this batch same-settings upload group. They'll always keep a relationship to one another (unless you delete them) making both upload and editing a breeze!

Flash Auto-Status

Here's where a booking platform built specifically for tattoo artists can shine. We've built in the concept of handling flash "status" automatically for you, so you don't have to think about it.

Unpublished vs. Published

Unpublished = Flash piece is not visible to the client.

Published = Flash piece is visible to the client, as long as the booking window is open and available for requests.

The concept of unpublished vs. published helps you keep your flash organized and allows you to work on it without worrying about clients seeing it until you're ready.

Like we mentioned above, if you drop off of the upload flash form at any point, we'll save your progress and mark your flash piece(s) as unpublished.

You can also go in and choose to "unpublish" a piece of flash if you want to retire it or temporarily block it from being bookable. Don't worry, unpublishing a piece of flash won't delete or alter any of the associated appointment requests or appointments.

Deleting

If you really need to do a deep clean of your flash shop, after unpublishing a piece, we allow you to delete it, so even you don't have access to it. Don't worry, deleting a piece of flash won't delete or alter any of the associated appointment requests or appointments.

Sold-out

If a piece of flash is marked as non-repeatable, we will auto handle the sold-out status for you!

An unlimited number of clients can submit requests for the piece of flash until you book an appointment associated with it. Once a single appointment has been booked for it, we will auto-update the status of that flash as "sold-out" within your flash shop. Clients can still see it (until you unpublish or delete it), but will no longer be able to submit a request for it.

If you have multiple requests for a non-repeatable flash piece, we recommend accepting one and considering responding to the others using the "acceptance status" feature in the review flow where you can add in a note to the client that you'd be willing to do a version similar to it, but with modifications to keep each piece unique.

If you cancel the appointment associated with the piece of non-repeatable flash, we auto handle marking it as "available" again until you book a new appointment associated with it. Flash management made so easy, you don't have to think about it!

Credits 🙌

I want to take space to thank Vannessa (@enlight.ink) who I chatted with a looooong time ago when Mind Your Ink was just a brainwave. They shared how they conceptualized and created the idea of a digital flash shop years ago via a Squarespace site. Tattoo artists like Vannessa and YOU have been finding innovative ways to improve the client experience for longer than we’ve existed. We aren’t the inventor of this idea, nor are other tech companies you see doing it 👀🫢 We’re here standing on the shoulders of tattooers who care about improving their lives and the experience of their clients, so thank you 💕

Thank you and shout out also goes out to Cyril (@cyril.kuhns.tattoo), a local Austin artist, who contributed to the software development and conception of how our Mind Your Ink flash shop would work 💛

Questions? Comments?

We don’t have the fancy ability to do that on the blog yet, but feel free to email via our contact link or DM on insta. We're here to help you get your flash shop setup for success! 👋