Selling tattoo gift vouchers for Christmas

Every December somebody messages you asking whether you do gift vouchers, usually on the 23rd. For a tattoo artist, vouchers are some of the easiest money of the year: paid in the quiet weeks before Christmas and spent in January and February, when the diary is usually at its emptiest.

They only stay easy if you sort out the terms before you sell one. Here is what to decide, and when.

Start selling early

Christmas voucher buying starts in late November and peaks in the second and third weeks of December. Have your vouchers on sale by the middle of November, so you can mention them on Black Friday weekend and again every week until Christmas Eve.

A voucher bought online does not need posting, so you can keep selling after the last posting date. Say so in your stories as the day gets closer: "not too late, it arrives by email".

Which amounts to offer

Buyers do not know what a tattoo costs. A £25 voucher towards a £300 piece feels like a disappointing gift to both of them. Offer amounts that pay for something real, and say what each one covers:

• your minimum, which covers a small flash piece
• a deposit, which secures a custom booking
• a half day or a full day, for somebody who already knows what they want

Let the buyer pick any other amount, too. Some want to spend exactly £75, and it is their present.

Expiry dates

There is no fixed minimum expiry for gift vouchers in the UK, but the date must be clear to the buyer before they pay, and a very short one is hard to defend as fair. Twelve months is common and gives the recipient time to choose a design and wait for a slot. Put the date on the voucher itself, not just in your terms. If you work in Ireland, the law is different: a voucher with an expiry date must run for at least five years.

If somebody asks for a little more time, give it. It costs you nothing, since you already have the money, and a client with an expired voucher and a grudge will tell people about it.

The voucher bought for somebody under 18

This one is specific to tattooing. Somebody buys a voucher for their 16-year-old, who cannot legally be tattooed in the UK until they turn 18. Decide in advance what you will do:

• ask the buyer, if the voucher is for a young person, how old they will be when they want to use it
• if they will not be 18 before it expires, offer to extend it to after their birthday, or suggest a different present
• check the age of whoever books, as you would for any client

The age check belongs at the booking, not the voucher sale. A voucher is only money, and the person who uses it is the one who must be 18.

Refunds and changes of mind

A buyer who bought online may have a legal right to cancel within fourteen days. After that, decide your own policy and say it on the voucher page. The common one is that an unused voucher can be refunded to the person who paid for it, and a part-spent one cannot. A voucher is for your work, not the studio's. If the recipient would rather be tattooed by somebody else, that is a refund for the buyer, not a transfer to another artist.

How voucher money counts

Most sole traders use the cash basis, which means income counts when the money reaches you. A voucher sold in December is income in the tax year it was sold, even if it is not spent until March. Our guide to Self Assessment for tattoo artists covers the rest of the tax year.

If you are VAT-registered, a voucher that can only be spent on your tattooing is usually a single-purpose voucher: the VAT is due when you sell it, not when it is spent. This is general information, not tax advice.

What you owe in work

This is the part that catches people out in February. Voucher money sits in your account looking like a good month, but it is work you still owe. Keep a running total of what has been sold and not yet spent, and do not count it as spare until it has been. A good December of voucher sales can mean a busy spring of work you have already been paid for.

How Chairtime handles it

With Membership, your gift voucher page goes up on your public page as soon as Stripe is connected. The buyer chooses an amount from £10 to £2,000, adds the recipient's name and a message, and chooses how it arrives: emailed now, emailed on a day they pick (from 8am on Christmas morning, if they like), or sent to them with a page to print and put in a card.

Vouchers run for a year from the day they are paid for, and the date is on the voucher and on the page before the buyer pays. You can extend one whenever you like, but never bring the date forward. The recipient types the code when they book from your flash store or accept a quote, and it pays the deposit. Anything left on it stays there for their next booking. Booking from your flash store or accepting a quote asks for a date of birth, and somebody who would be under 18 on the day cannot book.

The money goes to your own Stripe account when the voucher is bought, with a flat £1 per voucher sold and nothing more when it is spent. The vouchers page shows how much is still to be redeemed, so you always know how much work you owe.