Emanuele Pagani
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Founder – UX Design Lead · 2009 – 2021

Inkstinct

Inkstinct was an online platform and mobile application that connected tattoo artists and studios with enthusiasts, creating a space for artists to promote their art in a vertical marketplace.

Services

  • UX product design
  • Strategy
  • Brand design
  • Marketing design
  • SEO
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What Emanuele did

As co-founder and design lead, Emanuele was responsible for building Inkstinct from concept to global platform. He designed the product experience, developed the brand identity, and created scalable systems that supported a growing catalog of artists, studios, and users. His role spanned product design, marketing, and growth strategy, ensuring that the platform could scale both technically and visually.

  1. 01Curated the full iOS, Android, and desktop platform, shaping the experience through user research and behavioral insights
  2. 02Built a proprietary algorithm and database with 380,000+ studios, automatically synced from Facebook and IG
  3. 03Grew the Instagram audience to 4M organic followers and launched the largest tattoo Pinterest page globally
  4. 04Introduced the first tattoo social network, enabling users to discover tattoos, artists, and studios
  5. 05Led the full product roadmap, business strategy, branding, and go-to market execution
  6. 06Managed a distributed team including UX designers, engineers, and social media managers
  7. 07Achieved 9M+ mobile downloads and featured placement in the Apple App Store (2014 & 2017)
Inkstinct app screens laid out on a light background
Walkthrough: Welcome to Inkstinct, the most complete tattoo app
Mobile app
Walkthrough: We talk tattoos
Sign in with Facebook
Choosing a profile: tattoo artist, just me or tattoo studio
Inspiration by style: geometric, mainstream, Japanese, old school
A single tattoo photo with the artist's profile below
Explore: tattoo studios on a map of San Francisco
A tattoo opened full screen with a boost button
Boost summary: target location, description and price
A boosted post's engagement: clicks, views, likes and saves
Joining Inkstinct: tattoo lover, artist or premium artist
Browsing by style: geometric, watercolor, minimal
An artist's page: about, Facebook and location
A studio's page: Skinwear Tattoo
A studio profile with its followers and work
A studio profile, the whole page
Searching artists and studios
Search results for an artist
The map of artists in New York
Artists around San Francisco
Artists across Los Angeles
Explore: changing the location
A long feed of tattoos
From a tattoo to its artist: the flow
UX flows
The map flow, screen by screen
Picking a style, then a tattoo
The search flow
Choosing your type: the variants
Colours and shadows
Design system
The logo on light and dark
Corner radius
App Store: 5.0 stars
Results
Growth: downloads, users and sessions
Explore San Francisco tattoo studios on the web, with a map
Web platform
Popular artists and trending tattoos in San Francisco
Studios on a map of San Francisco, in the web dashboard
A studio dashboard with views, likes and plans
Editing a profile in the web dashboard
The web map of artists
The Inkstinct mark on the splash screen
Brand
The Inkstinct wordmark set vertically
The Inkstinct mark
Identity guidelines: the logo
Identity guidelines: isolation area
Identity guidelines: the stacked logo
Identity guidelines: typography

Impact

Inkstinct grew into a community of over 10,000 artists and studios with a highly engaged global audience, amplified by strong social media reach and daily engagement. The platform’s credibility led to the publication of Geek Ink (Running Press, 2017), a book celebrating tattoo culture and design. By 2022, Inkstinct had matured into a recognized leader in its space and was privately sold, marking a successful entrepreneurial exit.