u/abellantattoo

How do you reach the right audience when evolving your style?
Hey everyone! I’ve been tattooing professionally for around three years. Until now, most of my work has been small to medium-sized pieces, mainly patchwork, with some traditional tattoo influence.

Recently, I’ve felt that the natural evolution of my work is towards larger, more detailed blackwork pieces, with more texture, contrast and complexity. So it’s not only about doing bigger tattoos — my style itself has also evolved slightly.

The interesting thing is that the feedback from my existing clients has been very positive. They generally see the new work as a natural evolution of what I was already doing, rather than a completely different style.

My problem is finding the right audience for this new direction. I don’t think it’s a particularly niche or difficult-to-sell style, but most of the people who currently find me are still looking for the type of work I used to do.

I’ve attached some examples of my work from the past few years, along with some of the new designs.

For those of you who have gone through a similar change, how did you attract people who were actually interested in your new style? I’d especially appreciate advice on social media, paid advertising, targeting specific interests/audiences, or anything else that worked for you.

I’m basically trying to figure out who the right audience is and where to find them.

I use an iPhone 16 Pro and usually photograph my tattoos with a large ring light using a completely neutral white light. I’m struggling with inconsistent reflections on the skin — sometimes I get weird highlights, sometimes I don’t. I’ve tried moving the light closer/further away and changing its position, but I still can’t seem to get consistent results.

I don’t really understand why this is happening, because until a few months ago I was working in a different studio using exactly the same setup and method, and I never had these problems.

The effect is very subtle, but it still bothers me. For the aesthetic of my Instagram feed, I usually edit my photos by slightly lowering the saturation and adding a little contrast. This usually tones down the highlights/reflections quite a lot, but sometimes they still come through and are quite noticeable. I’ve attached an example of the same photo both edited and unedited for reference.

I also have a CPL filter with polarized light, but I really don’t like the way my work looks with it. I feel like it exaggerates the diluted tones and lighter greys too much, so I much prefer a more natural-looking photograph.

I’m open to any recommendations, even if they’re completely different from what I’m currently doing. I’d be happy to try different setups and see what works.
I’d love to hear how other tattoo artists photograph their work, especially when it comes to lighting, positioning and avoiding those weird reflections.