Now Everyone’s Getting Tattooed, This Startup Is Digitizing the Industry

More adults than ever have tattoos and the market is showing no signs of slowing down, so one startup has a plan to digitize the conservative industry

Close up tattoo artist demonstrates the process of getting black tattoo with paint. Master works in black sterile gloves. Master of tattoo fill circuit tattoo.Photographer: Belyjmishka/iStockphoto/Getty Images
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With about a quarter of all adults now having a tattoo in the U.S. and the U.K., one Swedish startup intends to become the Expedia for getting inked.

Fredrik Glimskär, a heavily tattooed Swede with a financial education and a career in digital advertising, launched online comparison and booking service Inkbay in 2016, after receiving 1.5 million Swedish kroner ($173,000) from Swedish VC firm Zenith. After linking to tattoo studios in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, he now has additional 4 million kroner in financing to expand to London this summer, with the U.S. and Berlin to follow.