Square Appointments for tattoo artists

If you already use Square for card payments, its calendar may make sense too. Check how it handles custom requests before moving your bookings over.

Square Appointments is a natural choice for artists who already use a Square reader. It is free for a solo professional and works well for fixed-price appointments such as piercings or flash.

The fit changes when custom work needs a request, references, a quote, and approval before it reaches the calendar.

Where the free tier changes

As of August 27, 2026, Square Appointments' US pricing page listed the plan free for a solo professional, $49 USD a month for Plus, and $149 USD for Premium. The free plan carries unlimited staff calendars, but booking more than one staff member is a Plus-and-up feature. Online card processing runs 3.3% plus 30 cents on the free tier and 2.9% plus 30 cents on the paid tiers. Cancellation and no-show charges require Plus or Premium.

A $200 online deposit costs $6.90 to process on the free tier. Forty deposits at that amount would cost $276 in processing fees.

tats.to charges $0, $19 or $49 a month and takes nothing per booking, because deposits do not go through us at all. The money moves however it already moves for you, and tats.to records whether it arrived.

What a generic scheduler cannot ask for

For custom tattoos, the work starts before you put anything on the calendar. You need to see the idea, discuss the piece and decide whether to take it on. Check how you would handle these steps in any booking system:

A booking request with reference photos attached, which you can accept, decline or quote before anything lands on the calendar.
Your deposit amount and payment instructions, written in your own words.
A signed consent form and health questionnaire stored with the client record, with a set retention period for sensitive answers.
Your portfolio beside the booking form so clients can look at your work before sending a request.

All four of those are in tats.to. The consent form and e-sign start on the $19 plan. Reference photos, booking requests, the client book and reviews are on every plan including the free one.

Square Appointments and tats.to, US pricing in USD. The Square figures date from August 27, 2026 and come from a secondary source rather than from Square's own pricing page.
Feature	Square Appointments	tats.to
Entry price	Free for a solo professional	Free forever, ten leads or bookings a month
Per-booking cost	2.9% to 3.3% plus 30c on card payments	0%, no payment processing at all
No-show and cancellation charges	Plus tier and above	Deposit terms on every plan, held slots on Pro
Booking request with reference images	No	Yes
Consent form and e-sign	Generic contracts with e-signature, no tattoo consent or health questionnaire	From $19 a month
Portfolio page	A basic booking site	Portfolio and booking on one page
Built for	Any appointment business	Tattoo artists only

When Square is the right answer anyway

Square may be a better fit if you need card payments, retail inventory or one system for a shop offering tattoos, piercings and permanent makeup. tats.to handles tattoo requests, portfolios and client records. It does not include point of sale, card processing or inventory.

You can also use tats.to for requests and client records while keeping Square for payments. You do not have to replace your card reader to change how you manage bookings.

Questions

Can I keep using my Square reader with tats.to?

Yes. tats.to does not process payments, so you can keep using Square for cards and tats.to can track whether the booking deposit arrived.

Does tats.to charge a no-show fee for me?

No. tats.to sends your deposit terms when you accept a request and emails reminders roughly 24 hours and 2 hours before a confirmed booking. You handle payments and any no-show charges yourself.

Is the tats.to free plan actually free?

Yes, permanently, with no card required. It covers a public booking page, ten portfolio images, booking requests and up to ten leads or bookings a month, shared in one pool.