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Is it worth developing a new social network in 2025, when it feels like everything has already been invented? Absolutely! The key is to find your niche and focus on a specific subject area. When the client shared the idea for TiesTattoo with us, we were immediately hooked. A social network that brings together tattoo artists, studios, and clients — how cool is that?
In this case study, we’ll walk you through how we developed an app that has no equivalent on the domestic market.
How many people in Russia have tattoos? VTsIOM reported in 2019 that 11% of Russian adults had them. That figure has probably grown since then 🙂
But where do people looking for a tattoo find an artist they trust? They usually rely on word of mouth, with friends and acquaintances recommending a good artist. Or they check social media and reviews. That research takes a lot of time: you might scroll through a feed for a couple of hours without finding the right person. And not everyone has friends who know a great tattoo artist in town.
Meanwhile, artists can struggle to promote themselves across different channels. Getting noticed means maintaining several social media accounts. Even that doesn't guarantee a steady flow of clients: recommendation algorithms can still bury their work.
Our client regularly visits tattoo studios and knows these problems firsthand. They wondered: why not bring artists and the people looking for them together on one platform?
This led to the idea behind a mobile app where users can find the right artist or studio. Tattoo artists post their work to attract new clients, while studios advertise job openings to find staff.
The client pictured an app with a feed of posts, search filters, and chats where clients and artists arrange appointments. Users would also follow accounts they liked and add one another as friends.
Essentially, it's a niche social network. Beyond finding an artist, users connect with like-minded people, share sketches, discuss ideas, or post photos of new tattoos.
We liked the idea and really wanted to take on the project. Fortunately, the client chose our team to build the app.
Our work on the project covered the following:
The client had a limited budget, so we started with design. The project then paused, but we knew the client would return for development a little later. Staying within budget still mattered. We suggested focusing on the core features needed for release. It's the classic MVP approach, or minimum viable product approach, which works well for startups.
We put any additional feature requests that exceeded the budget into the backlog, planning to revisit them during post-release support.
The app has 3 roles:
Users choose a role when signing up. This matters because it determines which features they have access to.
Every user has a profile. Artists and studios add professional details alongside their name and bio. These include their address, experience, price range, and tattoo styles, plus any additional services, such as piercing. This information determines which profiles appear in filtered search results.
Regardless of their role, users can:
TiesTattoo's standout feature is its advanced search filters for finding tattoo artists. They save users time by showing only artists who match their specific requirements.
Selecting the "Body parts" filter opens an interactive screen. Users tap the relevant parts of a 3D figure to choose where they want a tattoo. They can rotate it, too 🔄 Handy for anyone planning a back tattoo.
Search results appear in a list. Users can sort them by price, for example, from lowest to highest or vice versa.
We also added location-based search with results displayed on a map, so users can choose nearby artists or studios.
The core features are free, but the app also has monetization. A subscription removes all ads. For artists and tattoo studios, it also gives priority placement in search results.
Startups often come to us without an established visual identity or a finished brand book. As mobile app design specialists, our job goes beyond designing clear, easy-to-use flows. We also develop a distinctive visual style for each client and take care of the aesthetics.
That was the case with TiesTattoo. The client had no specific preferences for the style, except for one: they pictured the app in dark colors.
We used the client's brief and competitor research to develop a design concept and a metaphor for TiesTattoo. There were few direct competitors, so we also looked at apps for finding service providers.
A tattoo is part of a person's story. We decided to compare tattoo lines with the lines of a person's life and carry that metaphor throughout the app's visual style.
We used warm, sunny shades in the palette: pale yellow and gold, complemented by deep black. Together, they create an appealing visual contrast.
We chose a font pairing with a decorative typeface for headings and another for body text. Both fonts are free, helping us save the client's budget.
One of the more interesting interface decisions was the cover image on user profiles. Users can upload their own header image, but we also designed a default. Its subtle animation has interweaving lines that form mountains, diamonds, and whales 🐋
We also designed the app's logo, using the same metaphor of tattoos and the lines of a person's life.
We enjoy working on details because they often shape a product's mood and feel. For example, we added a subtle animation for likes. When a user taps the heart, it comes alive on screen through interweaving lines.
We integrated several popular services into TiesTattoo. There were a few difficulties along the way, but we found ways to resolve them!
🗺️ For maps, we used a library from Yandex Maps. It turned out to be outdated and no longer maintained. To adapt it to the project, we manually fixed numerous bugs and added our own patches.
💳 For secure payments, we integrated CloudPayments. At one stage, we found that a version of its SDK (software development kit) was incompatible with our stack. We solved this by using the previous stable version, which met all our needs.
💬 Pusher powered the chat feature. It requires custom code for each project, making development more complex. While working on it, we had an idea for a reusable chat template for future projects, covering both the frontend and the backend.
📊 For analytics, we chose MyTracker, a tool from VK. We found 2 issues during development, but the service's support team responded promptly and helped resolve both very quickly.
We built the app with React Native, a proven technology for cross-platform products. It lets us avoid building separate apps for iOS and Android, saving both development time and budget.
During active development, the client told us about an upcoming industry conference. Many attendees would be interested members of the tattoo community. It would be a good opportunity to show them the finished app, already available in stores. The conference was 2 months away.
It wasn't as though we were unprepared. Product development always has its surprises! That's why we use agile methodologies to adapt quickly to clients' needs and reorganize our work when necessary. We'd faced a similar situation before: a client needed to present a product at an industry conference, giving us 2 months to finish. We knew what to do.
We reviewed priorities and focused on the core features: profiles, the feed, and search. This would let us meet the deadline. At the same time, we began preparing the app's first release.
We agreed with the client to move the less critical features to the post-release phase. These included the admin panel and payment integration.
We finished in time for the conference.
The app is live. TiesTattoo is available on the App Store, Google Play and RuStore
We're now providing support, working through backlog tasks and making small changes. The client has new ideas for improving the product, and we'll continue implementing them.
➡️ Have an idea for a digital product and need a team to build it? We at Purrweb are ready to help. We'll handle everything from technical planning and design to development and release in app stores.
Contact us to discuss your project. We'll provide an initial estimate of the timeline and budget and put together a roadmap.
More than 10 years of experience. We've been building digital products for startups and businesses for more than 10 years. Our portfolio includes 550+ projects across fields such as IoT, EdTech, marketplaces, dating apps, and more.
Full-cycle mobile development. We handle the entire process, from design and development to testing and supporting the app's release in stores.
Modern technology. We work with an up-to-date technology stack to build even the most complex and advanced features. Our solutions are easy to scale, update, and maintain.
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