The What and Why Behind Closing My Books

Closing my books was a complicated and controversial decision, so I want to take a minute to explain my choice  to do it and what exactly it means.

First, what does it even mean when I say that “my books are closed”?

Simply put, it means that, for a period of time, I’m not accepting any new appointments, clients, inquiries, or consultations. I’ve “closed” my appointment “book” for a designated length of time.

This was a complicated decision and I have a love/hate relationship with my books being closed, but ultimately it was the choice I made.

Here’s why.

Good clients are everything to good tattooing. Everything.

For a long time I refused to close my books because I didn't want to inconvenience or be off-putting to great clients who earnestly want to get tattooed by me. I think it’s a huge honor to create art for my clients and to work with them to make a tattoo that they truly love. I didn’t want to make it hard for awesome clients to access me and my work, so I refused to close my books.  

But that didn’t really work.

For over a year, I was tattooing from a booked waitlist of 10-13 months. That means that if I did a consult with a new client and took their deposit, we wouldn’t even start their project for at least 10 months, and often longer. That’s a really, really long time to ask a client to wait to begin a tattoo that they’re excited about. 

So I decided that it was in both my best interest and my clients’ best interest to change things a bit. A year-long wait list just doesn’t work. So I decided to close my books.

Once the books were closed, I could work through my waitlist without allowing it to continue to grow on the far end. The result is that I could finally get that lag-time down to just a few short months.

Now, when I open my books, they are open for a limited amount of days and I take applications for projects that will happen in a designated period of time. For example, I might open my books in January and take applications for approximately 20 projects that will actually be tattooed between March and June. Once those 20 projects are filled, I close my books again.

Closing your books has a bit of stigma in the world of tattooing.  Some tattooers look down on others that close their books as being elitist, or believe that they're faking being booked and advertising "Books Closed" to appear that they are in higher demand than they are.  It can be an inconvenience for clients who want to get tattooed, can make the tattooer look inconsiderate towards them, and clients who see that your books are closed might not want to wait till they open and look elsewhere.

Plus, it just kinda seems prick-ish, you know?

But here’s why it works better for everyone involved:

When my books are always open, it means that in addition to actively tattooing clients and doing the preparatory drawing before each appointment, I’m also constantly answering inquiry emails and doing in-person consultations. That might not seem like a big deal, but remember that super long waitlist? For every hour of shop time I spend in a consultation or answering inquiry emails, that’s an hour that I’m not actively tattooing someone who’s patiently waited for an appointment for a really long time. It simply contributes to that wait getting longer.

Which seems like pretty shitty customer service for clients that I really value and who have waited a long time to work with me.

It’s also simply not very efficient. Instead of being able to focus in on the clients and projects that I’m working on this week, I might spend hours answering questions for potential clients I might never tattoo or brainstorming with someone in a consultation for a tattoo that may not get started for a full year. 

For anyone not in the tattoo industry, it can be confusing to understand how a tattoo artist works. I actively tattoo all day, up to 8-10 hours per day, at the shop, 5 days a week. I create original artwork for every single one of my clients, so that means that I do the actual drawings for my clients’ tattoos outside of my time at the shop. That means that I spend my early mornings, evenings after dinner, etc drawing for my clients. 

I generally start one new large project per week or so, and some of those larger drawings can take over 10-15 hours from sourcing references, making rough sketches, line drawings, and sometimes color or value studies.  I love doing large scale work, but it also takes longer to draw complex sleeves and back-pieces than a few roses, especially when I'm always attempting to push myself to draw and design better than the last time. 

So you might imagine that pausing either of those core activities to respond to inquiry emails or do consultations can result in my current clients waiting even longer for their work to begin.

When I get asked by people what my days off are, my wife, Katie, likes to interject, "He has no days off.” She’s right. 

Between running my business, communicating with clients, and drawing for tattoos, my schedule can get pretty full and overwhelming. My wife is amazing- she puts up with my crazy work ethic and likes to joke that I'm a robot, but working hard is a part of my nature. Plus, I'm obsessed with what I do, so I don't mind working at home. But for years now, I've done it to the neglect of my health, personal life, and ultimately, my creativity- as it turns out, a better work-life balance also contributes to greater creativity and better art.

All of that to say, emails and consultations take a lot of time out of my day when my books are open, but closing them has freed up a lot of that time for me.  Time spent tattooing or drawing or having that better work-life balance.

When I'm booked out a year, about 7 out of 10 people I spend time talking to about their tattoos, emailing and consulting with, end up not booking largely due to the wait time or for financial reasons. 

But because I now only open my books every few months, there is a shorter wait from the time we do the consult until they are in the chair, actively getting tattooed by me. This means clients who are more prepared and serious about getting tattooed. Which means a better experience for everyone involved.  

It’s also given me time for exercise, spending time with my wife, and more time to focus on the drawings I already have on my plate. It’s even allowed me to get back to doing some oil painting, which has resulted in renewed creativity and enthusiasm for all of my art.  

Closing my books has meant that I'm able to give each drawing my full attention without pulling late nights, drawing until 2-3am because I spent my whole morning returning emails. My waitlist is down from people waiting more than a year to get tattooed to a more reasonable six months or so. And I’ve even been able to get in 7 or so smaller/medium sized tattoos from my cancellation list to fill in smaller gaps in the schedule.

Closing my books has allowed me to give a better experience to my clients as well as live a better, healthier life, and helped me focus on what I love most about my work: great clients and great tattoos.

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