For solo tattoo artists

Meta ads built for solo tattoo artists.

More of the right enquiries, less time on marketing. You keep tattooing. We build the audience your bookings come from, run the ads, manage the spend, and report back monthly. You don't have to send us anything. We build the ads from what you already post.

Apply for a trial
100+Tattoo artists to date
10Countries
From $549NZD/month, plus ad spend

Ad spend is separate and goes straight to Meta from your own account. Audience-growth campaigns run from $300 NZD/month. DM or lead-form campaigns need $600 NZD/month, because below that they never get enough weekly results to leave Meta's learning phase.

What you get

Everything that touches your ads. Done for you.

  • Style-matched targeting

    People who book your style of work get shown your style of work. Not generic "tattoo enthusiasts." Niche styles often work harder than mainstream because the audience pool is more precise.

  • Creative built from your posts

    We pull from your existing Instagram. Healed pieces, in-progress shots, sleeves, walk-in days. No stock, no AI mockups, no recycled templates. Send something only if you want a specific ad run.

  • The audience layer, plus an enquiry layer

    Every campaign sits on a behaviour-based audience we build for you. On top of it runs an enquiry layer: DM ads, lead forms or a booking flow, chosen by your location, your style and the local competition. How we choose.

  • Plain-English monthly reports

    4 to 6 page PDF with what ran, what worked, and what's next. Written for tattoo artists, not finance bros. A tracking app that logs every enquiry your ads started, including the ones that book months later, is in pilot with a few accounts. No extra fee, and nothing on this page depends on it.

  • Guest spot and convention pushes

    Going on a guest spot? We can spin up a short geo-targeted campaign just for that window. Same for conventions, flash days, or pop-ups.

  • Direct line to Tom

    If your campaign needs adjusting, the person who can adjust it is the one you're talking to. No juniors, no PMs.

The full breakdown Every deliverable in the monthly fee
  • Campaign build and ongoing optimisation. Built from your work, tuned weekly against what the data shows. Not set-and-forget.
  • Audience testing and style-matched targeting. Neo-trad fans in Melbourne, blackwork in Berlin, fineline in Auckland. We test, narrow, and rebuild as the campaign learns who's actually engaging.
  • Creative testing across formats. Static, reel, carousel. We run them in parallel and let the data pick what scales.
  • Simple creative edits where the algorithm rewards them. Collage cuts, reel edits, captioned overlays, all using your existing posts. We do not build creatives from scratch. Your work is the selling. A flashy edit can't fix bad content and won't beat good content.
  • Tracking that tells Meta what a real enquiry is worth. Wherever your booking flow allows it, we make sure the account finds out when an enquiry turns into a deposit, so the targeting sharpens toward people who actually book, not just people who message. Lead-form campaigns deliver enquiries prefilled from the person's profile, straight to your inbox or Meta's Leads Center.
  • We watch what Meta turns on without telling you. Meta switches new AI settings on across ad accounts on review windows, not opt-ins. We check yours, decide a position, and tell you before you read about it somewhere else.
  • Short-burst campaigns for guest spots, conventions, flash days, and pop-ups. Part of the standard offer, not a paid extra. Tell us the dates and the angle, we'll run the push.
  • Monthly performance report. Designed PDF, period-over-period analysis. What ran, what worked, what's next. Plain English.
  • Direct line to Tom. Bonehead's owner and the person actually building your ads. No offloading to cheap help, no juniors, no account exec layer.
  • Strategy calls, video or in person, whenever you want one. Not a paid extra.

Audience growth, DMs, or lead forms

Every launch runs two layers. Where the top one points depends on you.

Every account runs a traffic layer first. It warms the audience and locks down the targeting. What goes on top, DM ads, lead forms or a booking flow, depends on your location, your style and the local competition. Nothing is set in stone; we change it when the numbers say so. Pure audience growth is the cheapest way to build the pool while you're getting started. DMs are the fastest route to a conversation. Lead forms bring fewer enquiries, higher intent, and a record you can track to a booking. Plenty of the artists we work with run DMs long-term, and that's a finished setup, not a stopgap.

If you've run DM ads yourself and got tyre-kickers, that's the objective doing what it does on a cold audience: it finds the cheapest conversation. Run into a warmed audience with a qualifying opener, it's a different inbox.

One thing to know if you're in the UK or Europe: Meta's privacy rules there mean DM campaigns don't optimise properly. Your enquiry layer runs on lead forms and profile visits instead. Everything else works the same.

If your booking flow needs a tracked page in the middle, we handle that too. Not the headline, just part of the job when it's needed. The full breakdown of the three lanes is on the services page.

From an artist we work with

"Working with Bonehead has been one of the best decisions of my career."

Tarryn Addlem @tarryn_addlem_tattoo

What happens after you apply

Two weeks of trial. No management fee. Then decide.

We only take a few trials a week and don't accept everyone. If you're accepted, your trial usually starts within two weeks. Nothing is billed unless you say yes. The only money that moves during the trial is ad spend, and that goes straight to Meta from your own payment method on the ad account you own.

  1. Week 1: Brief the campaign. Build the first creative wave from your existing posts. We get added as a partner on your own ad account, in your own Business Manager. No passwords, ever.
  2. Week 2: Launch. Spend stays low while we learn what's working. The traffic layer runs underneath. DM or lead ads can run alongside it as a test, depending on your market, so you see the setup and how it works. Two weeks is too short to judge results from them.
  3. End of week 2: You decide. Stay monthly or walk. Nothing is billed unless you say yes; the only money spent is the ad spend you've already seen.
  4. If you stay: Scale what's working, kill what isn't. Monthly reports, monthly creative refresh. Once the audience has built up, we can shift the enquiry layer if it suits you: lead forms for tracking, or DMs all the way if that's how you book.

Straight up: two weeks won't show you a built-up audience. It will show you how we work, what launches, and the first signal. The ad account, its data, the audience data and every new targeted follower stay yours. The ads themselves are Bonehead's work: if you don't continue after the trial, or leave inside the first three months, we take them down, so nothing keeps spending after you've said no. You can remove our partner access in one click whenever you like.

After the trial

Your typical month, once we're in flow.

A normal recurring month with Bonehead, from your side, looks like this:

  1. Week 1: Creative pull. We grab fresh posts and reels from your Instagram, brief any new angles, and queue the next round of ad creative. Your involvement: zero unless we need a missing reference.
  2. Mid-month: Optimisation pass. Audiences get tightened or rebuilt based on what's engaging. Underperforming creative gets killed, top performers scale. Your involvement: zero.
  3. On your billing date: Monthly performance report lands in your inbox. Designed PDF, plain English, what ran, what worked, what's next. Your involvement: 10 to 15 minutes reading it.
  4. Mid-month following: Creative refresh. New batch of ad creative goes live, audiences rotate, retargeting layers get adjusted. Your involvement: zero.
  5. Ongoing: Direct line to Tom on email or DM if you want to talk strategy, flag a guest spot, or ask a question.

Your time across a normal month is mostly spent reading the report and answering the occasional question. The rest happens in the background.

Read up first

Worth reading before applying.

A note on DMs and automation

DMs are valid. Nobody replies to them for you.

For plenty of the artists we work with, DMs are the long-term answer. They've always booked through Instagram, they don't want a CRM or a lead workflow, and a steady lift in weekly enquiries is exactly what they want. That's a legitimate end state, and we build for it the same way. Others layer in lead forms once the audience has built up. Nothing is set in stone; we change it when the numbers say so. More on how we choose.

We don't answer your clients for you. A DM ad can send one automated greeting or qualifying question when someone taps it, and it says it's automated. Every reply after that is you. If you want a bot replying in your voice, we're not the right fit. If you want growth without changing how you handle enquiries day to day, we are.

Our standards

We cap how many artists we take per style and city, so we never bid against you.

If we already run campaigns for an artist in your style in your area, we'll either pass on the application or talk you through whether the geo can be split or shifted. We don't want our own clients bidding against each other in Meta's auction. That's worse for everyone.

The cap is also what keeps one founder able to run every account properly. Fewer clients per style and city means your account gets watched, not queued.

If your style and city are taken, we'll say so.

Apply

Ready to talk about your work?

Drop the basics here. Every application gets a reply from Tom. Not a bot. Even if it's to say no, and why.

Honest check before you fill this in

  • You have 6 or more months of work in your Instagram
  • You can commit at least $300 NZD/month on ad spend ($600 for DM or lead-form campaigns)
  • You're open to running for 3 months if it's working (no contract, just the time the audience needs)

If those don't sound right yet, save us both time and come back when they do.