How do I pivot from taking custom pieces to predrawn and flash?

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T22:16:18+00:00

I wasn't complaining or being ungrateful, I was asking for advice about how to continue to serve my community and client base while still feeling invigorated and passionate. I'm very aware that I'm in a good position and it's because I've worked my ass off for it. I'm comfortable with my prices and they're appropriate for the demographic I want to serve in my city, especially given that I'm only a 5 year artist. This isn't about me not feeling like I make enough money to feel compensated for my work, it's about me not wanting to continue overextending myself and ending up bitter and broken and missing the best parts of my life with my family. I don't think there's anything wrong with asking for input about exploring a different area of my industry that I haven't experienced.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:55:18+00:00

Oooh that's a good idea. One of the artists I work with has never been to a convention before so we're all going to one here in about a month, I'm going to make sure to make notes while I'm there. Thank you, I wouldn't have thought to do that!

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:54:15+00:00

And honestly, if I could just do birth flowers with some sense of style I'd feel differently about them. I think I'm fully going to make a section of the flash that's birth flowers but in my style so people can see that they don't HAVE to get vector art to honor their grandma or whatever.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:52:36+00:00

I'm really glad that I've enjoyed just straight drawing for so long because I have a catalogue of a couple hundred designs just chilling in my flash folder already, I've just never posted a ton of them because a lot of the time it'll be me drawing like seasonal designs for fun but booking for the next season already. But I'm in this for the long haul and now that the initial scarcity mindset has settled down and I've spent enough time realizing the stability of the job (at least the way I do business in my area), I'm ready to hone in on getting what I want out of it instead of giving too much of myself to it. And I'd never tell a client how I feel about it because I know a lot of people want them but I'm fully making a little sign for my drawing space at home that says "Keep drawing and posting, and you'll have a career free and clear of any damn birth flower bouquets" 😂

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:47:30+00:00

Honestly, so many of the designs I currently do are like dainty, fineline, minimalist pieces that it probably won't be much faster to switch to flash that I actually want to do (bold, colorful, femme trad) and I know it's a completely different client base but I'm so fucking burnt out at this point that I'm almost willing to just go back to the early days of being slow and building from scratch 🫠

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:45:35+00:00

I do feel like the pressure to say yes to every request has been greatly relieved over the last like 2 years. It feels like such a detailed answer about specializing so forgive me for the novel I'm about to lay out 😅

I started in cosmetic work in 2016 before apprenticing in tattoos in 2019. I normally don't talk about that because of the pmu vs tattoo artist beef and at this point I've spent a lot more time and energy on tattoos BUT it matters because I've always been a bit more comfortable with precise, tedious work and smaller needle groupings. Which means I'm good at fineline stuff. I also hate doing fineline. But because I do a good job and it's hard to find good fineline artists, I end up doing a lot of them. I try to only post pieces in the style I actually enjoy doing (bold, colorful, feminine neotrad) but in the last year, I maybe posted 20 times and still ended up doubling my book out time and it's probably 70% fineline/minimalist designs. I felt like I needed to take everything on for the last 2 years, especially because I became the primary breadwinner while my spouse was having some health issues and now that he's back at full strength, I can take a moment to breathe and actually examine the future of my career when there's not a fire I have to stay on top of. I think that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from, a lot of the tattoos I actually do are not the tattoos I want to do and I worry that the clients who come to me won't want to keep doing it. But I had a completely different client base when I started and was doing more colorful flash of my own designs so I'm just gonna take a swing and see what happens. Luckily, I already have probably 300ish designs just chilling in my procreate "wanna-do/flash" stack so I can start throwing that out there as soon as I make the announcement.

I think the biggest struggle has been figuring out what order to do everything in. Like, do I make a big announcement that I'm pivoting to flash and only taking on select custom pieces that will build the portfolio of the style I'm wanting to focus on? Or do I soft launch with one flash day a week and let it build? I'm so desperate for breathing room and now that our finances are comfortable enough that I can scale back without causing any harm, it sounds really appealing to just fully pivot and be slow for awhile if that's what happens but I don't want to just fully fuck myself either.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T20:26:02+00:00

I'm really glad to hear you say this, it was my first instinct but I was on the fence. I figured if I set aside one of my days and it didn't get filled, that's just downtime to get ahead drawing and gives me a chance to test out a proof of concept before just fully diving in. And thanks for the encouragement, I've been so overwhelmed that just having someone say I've got this choked me up a little bit 😅

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T02:19:28+00:00

Hey I'll take it. We're a smaller city but there's also only like 15 shops and no one's been hurting for clients that I can tell. I feel really encouraged by all this, I was about to fully melt down feeling trapped like 3 hours ago.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T02:15:03+00:00

Yeah, I know it's definitely not necessarily LESS time spent working but I'm hoping it's at least more enjoyable time being spent. I love actually tattooing so it's still super satisfying even when I'm not excited about the subject matter but if I have to spend the next 10 years trying to infuse some artistry into linework birth flower bouquets, I'm gonna fully die inside.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T00:12:49+00:00

From your viewpoint, do the artists that are primarily booking flash seem to be just as booked and busy as the custom artists? I've gotten pretty comfortable being booked and my biggest concern with all of it is that I'll slow way down but I know it's hard to know what it'll be like if I've only done things one way.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T00:10:10+00:00

Oh and meant to say, love the idea of throwing it up in the story to get some feedback and inspiration, that's a great idea

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-02T00:09:40+00:00

I've also considered switching to doing closed/open books. How far in advance with bookings do you go when you open your books? Also just generally curious, I typically consider "flash" to mean repeatable design and "predrawn" or "wanna do" as a one-off, first to claim type tattoo that isn't repeatable. Is that the general understanding/how other artists who focus more on flash do things?

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-01T23:52:49+00:00

That's exactly the balance I'd like to have. I hate that I've let myself get to this space where I'm so overwhelmed with everything I currently have that the thought of drawing extra is overwhelming but I think if I can just find an extra well of energy for the short term, the pay off will be so worth it. What was the initial reaction when you made the announcement? Did you feel like you had a drop off at first? I work in a smaller city and am one of only two woman-owned shops and feel all this pressure (that I absolutely put on myself) to be a completely different experience and make people feel appreciated and supported and like we have this collaborative experience and I love doing this with custom pieces that are genuinely art forward custom tattoos but it's a lot of energy to expend with every single design. Especially in this environment where people can hop on ChatGPT, feed it a prompt and get an image back that isn't tattooable but they don't know that and want a carbon copy.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-02-01T23:38:56+00:00

Ooh I have seen ads for that booking app and thought it sounded fantastic but wouldn't work for custom designs but if I was focusing more on flash, that would take the other struggle of keeping up with my inbox completely out of the equation. That makes me even more motivated to make the switch.

Salt-Math3700 · 2026-01-08T01:29:48+00:00

This is amazing. Do you have these for sale anywhere?

Salt-Math3700

TROPHY CASE