Acceptable Use Policy

1. The point

InkMate is built for professional tattoo studios to run their business. This page lists what you can use it for and what gets your account shut down. It applies to everyone with access — studio owners, artists, and anyone you let in.

This Acceptable Use Policy is part of our Terms of Service. Violating it is a violation of the Terms.

2. What InkMate is for

• ✶Running a legitimate tattoo, piercing, or body-art studio
• ✶Managing real client records — names, contact details, consent forms, appointment history
• ✶Uploading reference imagery you own, licensed, or otherwise have the right to use
• ✶Collecting client deposits through Stripe Connect
• ✶Sending transactional emails about bookings (booking confirmations, receipts, password resets)

3. Prohibited content

You may not upload, store, or transmit through InkMate:

• ✶Illegal content in any jurisdiction relevant to you or your clients
• ✶Sexualized imagery of minors in any form — zero tolerance, instant termination, reported to authorities. This includes drawings, generated images, anything that depicts a minor sexually.
• ✶Non-consensual intimate imagery of anyone
• ✶Deepfakes or AI-generated likenesses of real people without their explicit consent
• ✶Hate symbols and content targeting people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or disability — unless used in a legitimate harm-reduction context (e.g. cover-up consultation records), and even then handled discreetly
• ✶Threats, harassment, doxxing, or stalking content directed at any person
• ✶Malware, exploits, phishing kits, or anything else that would harm computer systems
• ✶Counterfeit, infringing, or stolen content — including stolen tattoo flash you don't have rights to
• ✶Spam — using InkMate's email or booking surfaces to message people who didn't opt in

4. Prohibited conduct

You may not:

• ✶Impersonate another person, studio, or business
• ✶Create fake client records, fake bookings, or fake deposits to game any metric
• ✶Use InkMate's booking system or email surfaces to send unsolicited bulk communications
• ✶Attempt to access another studio's data, scrape, brute-force, or otherwise probe the system
• ✶Interfere with the Service — automated abuse, denial-of-service, intentional load testing without permission
• ✶Reverse-engineer, decompile, or copy the Service for the purpose of building a competing product
• ✶Resell or sublicense your InkMate account to a third party
• ✶Use InkMate for fraud, money laundering, or to evade sanctions
• ✶Bypass age-verification requirements in your jurisdiction

5. Tattoo-industry specifics

The tattoo industry is regulated. InkMate gives you the tools (consent forms, age fields, e-signatures); you are responsible for using them correctly. In particular:

• ✶Age verification: you must verify each client meets the minimum legal age in your jurisdiction before tattooing. Where parental consent is permitted, you must collect and retain it.
• ✶Health permits and licensing: you must hold the licenses and permits required to operate as a tattoo studio in your jurisdiction.
• ✶Hygiene and disclosure: compliance with bloodborne-pathogen standards, sterilization rules, and required client disclosures is on you.
• ✶Health-information handling: InkMate is not a HIPAA-covered entity. If you operate in a HIPAA-regulated context, InkMate is not the right tool.
• ✶Client imagery: get clients' written consent before photographing them, especially before-and-after work and anything you might post publicly later.

6. Third-party rights

You confirm that everything you upload — designs, reference imagery, client photos, consent-form templates — is yours to upload. Either you own it, you have a license, or it's in the public domain. If a rights holder contacts us about content you posted, we'll forward the complaint and may remove the content while we sort it out.

7. Enforcement

When we see a violation, here's how we typically handle it. Severity dictates speed:

1. Warning — for minor or first-time violations, we'll email you the issue and give you a chance to fix it.
2. Suspension — for repeat violations or serious ones, we suspend the account while we investigate.
3. Termination — for severe violations (illegal content, CSAM, fraud, repeated abuse after warning), we terminate the account immediately with no refund and report to authorities where required.

We can remove any specific piece of content that violates this policy at any time, with or without notice, and we reserve the right to skip steps for severe cases.

8. Reporting violations

If you see content or behavior on InkMate that violates this policy — including illegal content, CSAM, harassment, or fraudulent studios — report it to abuse@inkmate.app. Include what you saw, where you saw it, and any context. We read every report.

9. Changes

We may update this policy as new abuse patterns appear. Material changes are emailed to account owners. The most current version is always at this URL.

10. Contact

Abuse reports: abuse@inkmate.app. Policy questions: legal@inkmate.app.