In recent years multiple crowdsourcing platforms regarding logo designs have emerged. An infinite list from 48HoursLogo, Logomyway, DesignCrowd to 99designs, all guaranteeing professional logo designs for business use. But, what about designs on your body? Yes you heard me right: a crowdsourcing platform for tattoo ideas.

 

I have to be honest here. I do not have tattoos at the moment, nor am I planning on getting one in the future. Having something put on your body today and still being happy with it fifty years later seems impossible to me. Either way, I can imagine when planning on getting a tattoo, having a unique design is of great importance.  However, when going to a tattoo shop most likely you are limited to the imagination and skills of one tattoo designer and therefore the actual result may not always be how you envisioned it in the first place…

The owners of Createmytattoo.com understand this problem and thus created a platform on which you are able to connect with a community of tattoo designers, drawing designs based on your wishes and budget. With over twenty thousand designers and twenty-two designs per contest on average, Createmytattoo.com guarantees for satisfaction or you get your money back. Createmytattoo.com is unique in its sort. Several websites on tattoo inspiration exist (Tattoodo.com, lastsparrowtattoo.com), however none of these platforms offer competition possibilities.

So How Does it Work?

The process is simple and straight forward. When creating a contest for your next tattoo design, you are asked to write a short summary on your wishes and pick your price, which you pay the platform upfront. Then just wait; during the next ten to sixteen days designers are working on their designs and submissions will pop up. Throughout the competition you are then able to rate submissions, give feedback and answer questions if needed. After choosing the winning design, you are provided with the design on stencil, which you can take with you to your local tattoo shop. The quality of the final product once on your body, therefore depends on the performing artist of course.

Besides the contest holder no one is able to see the designs of other competitors throughout the contest. Only after the contest has ended, submissions are made public for everyone to see. This blind setting may be applied to prevent free-riding amongst designers or highly similar submissions. However, Bockstedt et al. (2016) researched contestant’s behavior in unblind innovations contests and concluded that an unblind setting does not prevent contestant’s from submitting early in the contest due to free-riding scares, but instead provides the advantage of emerging information. These early birds are also more likely to be successful. Making submissions on Createmytattoo.com open for everyone to see may have a positive impact on the overall quality.

Who’s to profit?

 Joint profitability is gained as all three participating parties profit from and on Createmytattoo.com.  Firstly, the winning designers are paid through an eighty-five percent share of contest prices, which vary from $20 up to $800 (Createmytattoo.com). But, also the satisfaction of creating and being able to show of skills can be seen as profits for the designers. The remaining fifteen percent of the price money  stays with the platform owner. Although not directly monetary profiting from Createmytattoo.com, indirect profits may also be assigned to the contest holder. By not having to search for the perfect tattoo design on different websites or tattoo shops, search costs are minimalized. In addition, one could imagine that due to the fact that the contest holder can give feedback and therefore optimize the final product, the possible costs of regret or even removing a disappointing tattoo are much lower.

Lastly, institutional arrangements are mentioned. As intellectual property is put up for sale on Createmytattoo.com, the website provides an extensive user agreement list. This, in order to protect designers and prevent any claims on issues regarding copy rights, trademarks and publicity rights. This, to prevent designers from not wanting to post any content, as they may not trust their work being handled with care and is being protected.

So what about you? Would use this platform or stick to your local tattoo shop when contemplating on a new design?

 

 

Sources;

Createmytattoo.com (2017) Createmytattoo.com. Available at: http://www.createmytattoo.com/. Accessed on 04/03/2017

Bockstedt, J., Druehl, C., & Mishra, A. (2016). Heterogeneous submission behavior and its implications for success in innovation contests with public submissions. Production and Operations Management.