Guides / Studio Haven
How to run a flash day without living in your DMs
One date. Timed slots. Designs people can grab with a deposit. A flash day only works if the page can hold the chair while they pay, and let go if they do not.
A flash day is not your Saturday with extra posts
A lot of shops call any busy Saturday a flash day. Then the stories fill up, the DMs fill up faster, and you are screenshotting times into a notes app while someone else claims the same swallow. That is not a drop. That is a crowd with no queue.
A real tattoo flash day is a single date you pick. You choose the designs. You set timed slots. Booking opens at a time you choose, often the morning of. Clients pick a piece, pick a time, and pay a deposit. When a slot is gone, it is gone. First come, first served, without you dealing the cards.
Why artists bother
Scarcity is honest when the page shows it. Ten designs, eight times, one day. People can see what is left. A deposit means the person who grabbed 11am has a reason to show up. You get a day of work that was sold before you uncapped.
- One link for the whole drop, or a page for that day only
- Deposits through Stripe or Square, same as regular flash
- The board updates as pieces and times go
- You are not matching names to e-transfers while you set up
Setting one up on Studio Haven
Flash Days live in the admin, not in a separate product. Pro includes them. The steps are the ones Beth actually uses, not a 12-page playbook.
- Put the designs in Art with deposits set. Sheets with several pieces on one image are not on Flash Day yet, so upload each design on its own.
- Open Flash days in the sidebar (on a phone it sits with the rest of the tabs, not in a hidden desktop menu).
- Create a day. Set the event date, and the date and time booking opens.
- Add designs to the pool, or pin a design to a specific time if you already know that swallow is a noon piece.
- Build the slot grid, then schedule it or publish it now.
- Copy the public link into Instagram, a story, or your studio page.
Scheduled days go live at the date and time you picked, in the studio timezone. You can sleep. The link does the door.
What the client sees
They open the Flash Day page, look at the art, pick a time, type a name and email, and pay the deposit. Stripe and Square both work. If they cancel checkout, the hold on that slot releases so the next person can take it. You are not babysitting a "I was just looking" tab.
They do not need an account. They do not need your marketplace app. They need the link and a card, the same way they buy anything else that actually has a queue.
What it costs
Flash Days are part of Studio Haven Pro (CA$15 / US$15 a month). There is no flash-day add-on and no per-event fee from us. Card processing is whatever Stripe or Square already charges. More detail is in the FAQ, or make an account and build a day you never publish, just to see the grid.
Keep reading
Questions people ask before they switch
What is a tattoo flash day?
A single date where you put out a set of designs, open timed slots, and let people grab a piece with a deposit. First person to pay keeps it. It is a drop, not your normal weekly books.
Do I need a separate tool to run one?
Not on Studio Haven. Flash Days come with Pro. No extra add-on. You pick the date, the art, the times, and when the link goes live.
What happens if someone bails at checkout?
The hold on that slot drops so the next person can take it. You are not stuck with a ghost time because someone opened the page and wandered off.
$15 a month. No cut of your deposits.
14-day free trial starts when you sign up. No card needed. Flash, customs, deposits, calendar, aftercare.