A month-by-month calendar of what moves tattoo demand across five US regions - tax refunds, holidays, conventions and weather - with a named source on every claim. Built on 92 active US conventions and public federal data.
What demand does month by month across five US regions. Every claim on the live page carries the source it came from.
Refunds have not arrived; holiday debt already has.
Conventions this month: Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (Philadelphia, PA); Star of Texas Tattoo Art Revival (Austin, TX); San Diego Tattoo Arts Festival (San Diego, CA); Maine Tattoo Arts Festival (Portland, ME); Oahu Tattoo Expo (Honolulu, HI).
Quiet until the 17th, then the year's biggest wave.
Conventions this month: Santa Rosa Tattoos & Blues (Santa Rosa, CA); Cleveland Tattoo Arts Festival (Cleveland, OH); Jacksonville Tattoo Arts Festival (Jacksonville, FL).
Peak refund money meets the densest convention calendar.
Conventions this month: Evergreen Tattoo Invitational (Eugene, OR); Motor City Tattoo Expo (Detroit, MI); Salt Lake City Tattoo Expo (Salt Lake City, UT); Chicago Tattoo Arts Festival (Rosemont, IL); Atlanta Tattoo Arts Convention (Atlanta, GA); Tucson Tattoo Expo (Tucson, AZ).
Money still circulating, the chair books cleanest.
Conventions this month: New England Tattoo Expo (Uncasville, CT); Tahoe Tattoo Show (Stateline, NV); Baltimore Tattoo Arts Festival (Baltimore, MD); Raleigh Tattoo Arts Festival (Raleigh, NC); Memphis Tattoo Festival (Memphis, TN); Elm Street Tattoo & Music Fest (Dallas, TX).
Industry employment reaches its yearly maximum.
Conventions this month: NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (New York, NY); Cincinnati Tattoo Arts Festival (Cincinnati, OH); Kansas City Tattoo Arts Festival (Kansas City, MO); St. Louis Tattoo Arts Festival (St. Louis, MO); Palm Springs Tattoo Arts Festival (Palm Springs, CA); True North Art and Tattoo Expo (Juneau, AK).
Interest climbs, but the client has a trip booked.
Conventions this month: Sinners Tattoo Expo (Dallas, TX); Denver Tattoo Arts Festival (Denver, CO); Louisville Tattoo Festival (Louisville, KY); Indy Tattoo Expo (Danville, IN); Oklahoma City Tattoo Arts Festival (Oklahoma City, OK); Capitol City Classic Tattoo Convention (Sacramento, CA).
Peak attention, minimum client availability.
Conventions this month: Pacific Ink & Art Expo (Honolulu, HI); New Mexico Tattoo Fiesta (Albuquerque, NM); Houston Tattoo Arts Festival (Houston, TX); Long Beach Tattoo Arts Festival (Long Beach, CA); Portland Tattoo Arts Festival (Portland, OR); Twin Cities Tattoo Festival (St. Paul, MN).
School bills, and coastal risk from mid-month.
Conventions this month: Hell City Tattoo Festival (Phoenix, AZ) (Phoenix, AZ); Seattle Tattoo Expo (Seattle, WA); Nashville Tattoo Arts Festival (Nashville, TN); Virginia Beach Tattoo Festival (Virginia Beach, VA); Jacksonville Tattoo Convention (St. Augustine, FL); Colorado Springs Tattoo Arts Festival (Colorado Springs, CO).
Conventions take the weekends, search interest turns down.
Conventions this month: Golden State Tattoo Expo (Pasadena, CA); Boston Tattoo Convention (Boston, MA); Orlando Tattoo Show (Kissimmee, FL); Meadowlands Tattoo Arts Festival (Secaucus, NJ); Asheville Tattoo Arts Festival (Asheville, NC); Savannah Tattoo Arts Festival (Savannah, GA).
Halloween produces revenue in a falling market.
Conventions this month: Tommy's Tattoo Convention (Uncasville, CT); Longhorn State Tattoo Expo (Dallas, TX); Richmond Tattoo & Arts Convention (Richmond, VA); New Orleans Tattoo Arts Convention (New Orleans, LA); DC Tattoo Expo (Washington, DC); Milwaukee Tattoo Arts Festival (Milwaukee, WI).
Worst demand of the year, priciest ads.
Conventions this month: Hell City Tattoo Festival (Columbus, OH) (Columbus, OH); The Allstars Tattoo Convention (Miami, FL); Tampa Tattoo Arts Convention (Tampa, FL); San Antonio Tattoo Arts Festival (San Antonio, TX); Inkin The Coast (Biloxi, MS).
Zero conventions; household money is aimed at others.
No US tattoo conventions run this month.
A national calendar is wrong for a Sun Belt artist. Florida and Arizona peak in December while Maine peaks in June, so the same month is the best and the worst of the year depending on where the chair is.
ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA. Peaks in June, bottoms in January. Maine swings 9.7 points, the widest of any state checked. Order computed from Maine (BLS QCEW 812199, 2022-2024).
DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL, KY, TN, AL, MS, AR, LA. The year runs backwards: November and December are the peak, June is weak. Order computed from Florida and Georgia.
OH, IN, IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, MO, ND, SD, NE, KS. The flattest year of the five. Minnesota holds inside a 3.4 point range. Order computed from Minnesota.
TX, OK, NM, AZ. Like the Southeast: Texas tops out in November, Arizona in December, summer sags. Order computed from Texas and Arizona.
CO, WY, MT, ID, UT, NV, CA, OR, WA, AK, HI. No state series for this region is in the corpus, so the national shape is shown. Shape inherited, not measured.
No public monthly booking data exists for US tattoo studios. The curve rests on three proxies: search interest (peer-reviewed JMIR, Google Trends, 14 years, month ranks only), employment (BLS QCEW, NAICS 812199), money (IRS, JPMorgan Chase Institute, NY Fed, NRF). Code 812199 also covers tanning, spas, piercing and permanent makeup, where tattooing is a minority. Payroll is sticky, 1099 artists never show in it. Demand series ends October 15, 2022. The curve shows the order of the months, not a measured amplitude.
December carries 0 US conventions. 92 active US conventions are tracked in total, and the full catalogue lives at https://neds.marketing/conventions.
Which manufacturers sponsor artists, which pay through an affiliate link, and which only open up through a distributor. Four tiers, re-checked monthly, with the read date on every card: https://neds.marketing/sponsors.