LEAVING A MARK - THE APP FOR
TATTOO ENTHUSIASTS

SKILLS

UI Design
Mobile Design

Patchwork is a social media app tailored for tattoo enthusiasts and artists.
It connects tattoo lovers with skilled artists, providing a platform to showcase designs, book appointments, and share tattoo stories. Whether you're seeking inspiration or want to promote your work, Patchwork brings the tattoo community together on one platform.

SOFTWARE

Figma

Patchwork was born out of a conversation about the challenges tattoo artists face when customers bring AI-generated designs that still need to be reworked by the artist. This app is designed to bridge the gap, offering a curated space where tattoo enthusiasts can browse designs, learn about styles, and connect with local artists who specialize in exactly what they’re looking for. Perfect for first-timers or seasoned collectors, Patchwork makes it easy to find your next tattoo and artist.

HOME PAGE

Featuring a clean, two-column layout, it allows you to scroll through a curated collection of tattoo designs, styles, and posts from artists and businesses.

At the top, a dynamic tag system lets you quickly filter content by specific styles, themes, or placements, making it effortless to find exactly what you’re looking for or something new!

SEARCHING + BUSINESS PAGES

The Search Page on Patchwork is designed to help you discover local businesses with ease.
By default, it showcases a list of nearby studios, complete with their ratings and a preview of their work from reviews.

For a more interactive experience, toggle to the Map View, where you'll see pins representing tattoo parlors near your current location. These pins expand with details similar to the list view, giving you a clear sense of where to go and what to expect.

Found through the Search, each Business Page highlights essential details like operating hours, contact information, and website links.

You can also explore registered tattoo artists at the studio and browse a gallery of their work, offering a full picture of what the business has to offer before booking your next appointment.

The Independence Tattoo

INBOX

Chat directly with local or distant tattoo artists to consult on designs, ideas, and appointments, or engage with fellow tattoo enthusiasts.

This page also recommends other users, helping you discover and follow others who share your tattoo interests. Whether you're building your next piece or building community, the Inbox keeps you connected.

PROFILES

Profile Pages on Patchwork are a showcase of your tattoo journey and a gateway for discovery.

Share your tattoos and tag the artists or studios behind them in the Favorite Artists section, creating a direct link for others to explore their work.

THE WORK BEHIND PATCHWORK

Patchwork started off pretty similar to how it ended. The vision was clear enough from the beginning for me where prototyping and testing came quick.

Part of the ease in prototyping so quickly was contributed to the desire of figuring out an optimal workflow within Figma. I was starting to understand variants and their capabilities way more while working on this project. I used this understanding to better create easy copies of components that allowed myself to see what works better or how a component should be styled on the fly.

Many of the components were grouped and organized in a way based on use case and appearance. The ‘BusinessIcons’ are only seen and used within components found on Business pages and thus are grouped together that way. A handful of icons and symbols were used from this icon library by Jordan Hughes.

While the bulk of Patchwork came easy, I found the most troubling section to be the thing we see constantly throughout the app: the navigation bar. It was here that I had to decide which pages needed to be readily available as well as how it would look and feel. This section had the most trial and error, mostly from experimenting with button spacing and positioning.

Lastly, we come back to the catalyst of this project. Stemming from a conversation with a tattoo artist about AI and how clients would bring in a generated image to get tatted, I felt there had to be a way to bridge this ever evolving gap between the client and the artist while also bringing together those who do love tattoos. Tattoos should be important and not up for the computer to decide something so important. The brand attributes an ink trap typeface and colors that are stages of the tattoo process, from stencil to a fresh, new tattoo. Patchwork is the collection of those beliefs all together.