Revolutionizing the tattoo industry with Toronto’s newest startup
This is Shawn Gershman and Benjamin Hantsis. Shawn, pictured on the left is my boyfriend and next to him, Benjamin, is his best friend and business partner. Together, they are the co-founders of Toronto’s newest startup: picktheink.com.
The idea for picktheink.com actually started because of a complaint that I made. Back in June, I found a tattoo artist on Instagram that specializes in the style of tattoo that I want. The only problem is that the tattoo artist is all the way in Tel-Aviv, and I’m here in Toronto. So, Shawn simply asked me: “why can’t you just find a tattoo artist that specializes in the style you want, in Toronto?” and I replied saying that I wouldn’t know where to look. And as if a light bulb went off in Shawn’s head — boom — the initial idea for picktheink was born.
But of course, starting a business isn’t THAT easy. Between that eureka moment back in June, to their launch date on January 3rd (2018), Benjamin and Shawn spent countless hours perfecting their business; whether it be Benjamin working on the branding for picktheink, or Shawn keeping track of their financials. And again, the work doesn’t just end there. Ever since their launch date, business has been booming for these two young entrepreneurs as they continuously increase their outreach and constantly develop their clientele.
So, essentially picktheink.com is the matchmaker between tattoo artists and their clients. When you go onto the website, you can find artists in Toronto (soon to expand to other cities) that specialize in the style of tattoo you’re looking for. For example, if you’re interested in getting a photorealistic tattoo, picktheink.com currently has two artists in Toronto listed under the photorealism category. Under each artist’s profile, you can find a detailed biography about their history as a tattoo artist, their portfolio, the tattoo shop(s) they work at, their City of Toronto Health Inspection results, and several points of contact (email, Instagram, etc.).
Speaking of photorealistic tattoos, shown above is a photo of Shawn and Benjamin together with Scoot Ink at his shop’s grand opening on October 13, this past fall. Scoot is the second artist who collaborated with picktheink to make Shawn and Benjamin’s dream a reality. He was named one of Toronto’s top 10 tattoo artists according to blogTO and is famous for the tattoos he’s given to our very own Toronto Raptors, various Hip Hop/R&B artists and even the world-famous actor, Johnny Depp.
So, I’ve covered the history, and I gave you some insight on what you can find on picktheink.com (visit their website for more!) but the most pressing matter here, is how exactly do they get people to visit their website. Undoubtedly, social media platforms and user experience design play the biggest roles in this quest for gaining online traffic.
Picktheink.com heavily relies on social media platforms to promote their service and increase their user base. In fact, Instagram was the first medium they used to publicily announce their website. Their first post was made on August 30, and ever since then, they have managed to obtain a following of 472 Instagram users. (Visit their Instagram page here!) 29% of picktheink.com’s users come directly from their Instagram page.
Instagram also helps picktheink.com select the artists chosen to be featured on the website. Benjamin and Shawn spend many hours searching through the #tattoo tag and anything alike on Instagram to find talented tattoo artists that they would like to represent on their website. Once they find someone sufficient, they send the artist a personalized direct message through Instagram, in which they begin to establish a positive company-client relationship. Without Instagram’s hashtagging system, and instant direct messaging ability, it would be difficult for Benjamin and Shawn to find quality artists to display on their website.
Another big factor in picktheink’s ongoing success is their user experience development. When first developing the website, picktheink worked alongside a user experience engineer to make sure any site viewers had the simplest and easiest experience browsing through the website. They even went as far as having people test the website before its launch. They asked people to navigate through different pages on picktheink.com and recorded the steps they took to get from point A to B. After doing this a lot of times, they developed the website so that a user would have to take a reduced amount of steps to navigate to and from different pages on the website, making sure the user experience is the best it could be.
It is clear that without these digital platforms, picktheink.com would be a very different brand, and a much more difficult idea to execute. Otherwise, that’s the jist of picktheink.com; a Toronto startup looking to revolutionize the tattoo industry, making it easier to find tattoo artists for those interested.