Privacy Policy

Who operates this website

Tattoo Shop Locator (tattooshoplocator.com) is operated by HAKT Industries, LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). This policy explains how we handle personal information when you browse the directory, submit information, or contact us. It does not cover independently operated tattoo shops, advertisers, or websites you visit through our links.

For privacy questions or requests, contact the operators of TattooShopLocator.com at privacy@tattooshoplocator.com. For general enquiries, email hello@tattooshoplocator.com or use our contact page.

Information we collect and use

• Directory information: shop names, addresses, business contact details, websites, coordinates, specialties, photos and other listing information supplied by contributors or obtained from publicly available sources. Business information may also identify an individual artist or proprietor.
• Submissions and corrections: information you enter in our forms, including contact details, your relationship to a business, proposed listing information and messages. Private submitter contact details are used to process the request, not automatically published as review or listing content.
• Reviews: your chosen reviewer name, rating and review text. Reviews are submitted for moderation. If approved, the reviewer name, rating and text are publicly visible. Do not include confidential information or information about others that you lack permission to share.
• Correspondence: your name, email address, topic, message and associated submission/status records when you contact us.
• Technical information: network requests necessarily expose an IP address and browser/request metadata to the services delivering the site. Security and performance services may process request URLs, referrers, browser/device information, timestamps, response information and page-load measurements.

We use information to operate the directory, respond to enquiries, moderate submissions, correct listings, protect against abuse, diagnose faults, measure performance and comply with legal obligations. A typed location search concerns the place you enter; the current site does not ask the browser for your device's precise location.

Our application does not store raw IP addresses or raw user-agent strings in its submission and abuse-prevention records. Where request identifiers are needed, the application uses a cryptographic hash or keyed cryptographic identifier. These identifiers are pseudonymous, not anonymous. This application-storage practice does not mean that hosting, network or third-party providers never receive or process IP addresses.

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Similar technologies include local storage, pixels and script-based requests. Necessary session and security technologies support functions such as administrator authentication, form protection and abuse prevention. Analytics technologies are described separately below; they are not necessary to browse the directory.

You can manage or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking necessary cookies can prevent some functions from working. Browser cookie settings and this site's Analytics preference are separate controls; changing one does not necessarily change the other.

Advertising

We do not currently serve Google AdSense ads or use Google's Privacy & messaging consent platform on this site. Google Analytics is a separate service, described below. If we introduce advertising services in the future, we will update this policy and provide any required choices before those services begin.

Google Analytics choices

You can opt out of Google Analytics measurement on this site. Your preference is saved in this browser.

JavaScript is required to manage this browser's Analytics opt-out.

Changes apply on later page visits. A Global Privacy Control signal keeps Analytics disabled. See our Privacy Policy for details about measurement and cookies.

Your privacy choices

A supported Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal or saved Analytics opt-out suppresses Google Analytics measurement. Use Analytics choices above to manage this browser's Analytics preference. Previously saved opt-outs remain in effect unless you change them.

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights to withdraw consent or opt out of certain processing, including sale, sharing or targeted advertising. Send privacy requests to privacy@tattooshoplocator.com. Visiting the site or using a necessary feature is not, by itself, consent to optional advertising or analytics.

Analytics, hosting and fonts

Cloudflare: we use Cloudflare to host and deliver the site, store application data and images, and provide security and operational services. Cloudflare processes network/request information to provide those services. The site also includes Cloudflare's Web Analytics performance beacon, which reports page-load and performance information. Cloudflare describes Web Analytics as not tracking individual visitors across customer sites. This is separate from Google Analytics. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy and its Web Analytics data-collection documentation. Hosting and operational logs are distinct from our application's hashed abuse records.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is enabled on eligible public directory pages as cookieless measurement with analytics and advertising storage denied through advanced Consent Mode. Google receives network/request and device information and a coarse page category, which may support aggregate measurement and modeling. We do not send listing slugs, actual page titles, referring pages, search queries or form entries. Search, query-bearing, fragment-bearing, admin, policy and submission pages are excluded, as are active map contexts. Measurement uses a separate empty same-origin document to avoid automatic observation of directory interactions; this is not a security boundary against Google. We do not enable Analytics cookies or infer a consent grant from an unavailable message. GPC and the saved opt-out in the Analytics choices section above suppress this measurement. See Google's partner-sites disclosure. Google also provides an Analytics opt-out browser add-on for supported browsers.

Google Fonts: the current public layout uses system fonts and does not request fonts from Google Fonts. Naming an installed font in a style sheet does not download it from Google. If externally hosted Google Fonts are introduced, your browser would send its IP address and request metadata to Google to fetch the fonts; that change requires an updated disclosure. See Google Fonts privacy information.

Optional maps

When you choose Map view or open a link already set to Map view (view=map), your browser connects directly to OpenFreeMap to download map styles, tiles, labels and icons. OpenFreeMap and its delivery providers receive your IP address and ordinary browser/request metadata. Requested tiles identify the geographic area and zoom level you view, including changes as you move the map.

This map uses listed shops’ coordinates; it does not request your device’s location. Ordinary List view does not initiate these map requests. Without JavaScript, the list remains available and the map does not load.

Our application's hashed-IP storage statements do not apply to these direct third-party connections. OpenFreeMap handles requests under its own privacy policy.

Disclosure of information and external links

Approved listing and review information is public and can be copied or indexed by others. We disclose information to providers that help operate, secure and support the site, as described above; where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights and safety; and in connection with a business transfer, subject to applicable law. Our current advertising status and available privacy choices are described above.

Links to shop websites, directions, social platforms, advertisements or other external services take you to independently operated services with their own practices. We do not control their collection, cookies or privacy policies.

Retention and security

We retain information while needed to operate the directory, handle enquiries and moderation, protect against abuse, maintain necessary records or meet legal obligations. The appropriate period depends on the record and its purpose. Public listings and approved reviews can remain available while relevant, but are not exempt from applicable correction or deletion rights.

Our configured retention-review targets include 180 days for open contact messages, 90 days after resolution for eligible resolved contacts, 90 days for pending reviews/submissions/corrections, and 30 days after rejection for eligible rejected reviews/submissions/corrections. Private records of approved submissions and applied corrections have a 90-day review target. These are review targets, not a guarantee of automatic erasure: scheduled deletion is not currently enabled. Records needed for ongoing requests, security, legal obligations, publication provenance or reliable processing may require separate review. You can request deletion without waiting for a review target.

Short-lived rate-limit identifiers and counters have configured expiry periods of no more than 24 hours, apart from a short storage-service minimum-expiry allowance. Backup copies, correspondence and provider-controlled logs can have separate retention lifecycles; deletion from the active application does not mean immediate deletion from every copy. We do not promise a backup or provider-log deletion deadline that we have not verified.

We use HTTPS, access controls and application safeguards to protect information. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not send passwords, payment details, medical records or other unnecessary sensitive information through public submissions.

Your rights and requests

Depending on where you live and the applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal information; obtain a portable copy; restrict or object to processing; withdraw consent; opt out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising; and appeal a refusal of a request. We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising your rights. Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law, subject to appropriate authorization and identity checks.

Send requests or appeals to privacy@tattooshoplocator.com. Identify the relevant listing, review or correspondence and the action requested. We may ask for information reasonably needed to verify the request, but please do not send identity documents unless requested through an appropriate process. We respond within the period required by applicable law and explain any permitted extension or reason we cannot fully comply.

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on consent for optional processing that requires consent; legitimate interests in running and securing the directory, moderating content and answering enquiries where those interests are not overridden by your rights; contractual necessity where applicable; and compliance with legal obligations. You may complain to your local data-protection authority.

Our providers may process information in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where applicable law requires safeguards for international transfers, those requirements apply to the relevant processing and provider arrangements.

Children's privacy

The site is intended for adults aged 18 or older, not for children. We do not knowingly seek personal information from children. If you believe a child has supplied personal information, contact privacy@tattooshoplocator.com so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Changes and contact

We update this policy when our practices change and publish the revised date above. Where required, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before materially different processing. For privacy questions, concerns or requests, contact the operators of TattooShopLocator.com at privacy@tattooshoplocator.com.