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Tattoo Release Forms App Knowledge Base

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TRF App Knowledge Base

General TRF app knowledge

Quick-Start Guide to Tattoo Release Forms App

General TRF app knowledge

Quick-Start Guide to Tattoo Release Forms App

If you own or run a tattoo shop, you will have your digital waiver system set up on TRF just 10 minutes after downloading it from the Apple App Store.

Set Up Your TRF Studio Profile

Setting up your iPad tattoo release form app only takes a few minutes,

Q: Who should perform the initial setup of the TRF app?

A: The shop owner or the party holding primary legal liability for the studio. This ensures technical accuracy, account recovery, and compliance with health board requirements.

Let's get to it. You need a few details about your studio to set up, so read on to prepare.

  1. Download the iPad App: Search for "Tattoo Release Forms App" in the Apple App Store on your iPad and look for our logo. You'll see a few look-alike apps, but TRF is the tattooer-created original, in use since 2013.

  2. Authenticate Identity: Once downloaded, sign in using SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE or SIGN IN WITH APPLE. You only need to do this once, and it anchors your studio profile for all time. If you uninstall TRF, buy a new iPad, or deploy multiple iPads across your shop, signing in with this same master account will instantly bring up all your saved settings.

  3. Configure Studio Settings: Tap the Main Menu (the three lines in the top right of the main screen) and select Settings. Enter the default Master Passcode 1234 (you can change this passcode at any time in Settings). You will be placed directly on the STUDIO tab. Complete all required studio fields:

    • TRF App Login Field: Located second from the bottom on the STUDIO tab, type or paste the exact email address for the Google or Apple account you used in Step 2. Do this right now—"I forgot which email I logged in with" is the single #1 support request we receive. Parking your master login email here saves it directly in your studio profile, so you and your management never have to guess down the road.

    • Studio Popular Name: Enter your public shop name as recognized by clients and local marketing.

    • Studio Legal Entity Name: Enter your official registered business entity name.

    • Registered Artists: Tap to add at least one artist name to activate the intake dropdowns for client waivers.

    • Cloud Service Status: Verify at least one cloud pathway is enabled.

  4. Connect your cloud: Tap the CLOUD Tab at the top of the Settings screen. TRF connects to four major cloud services:

    • Google Drive

    • Dropbox

    • OneDrive

    • Box

        Select your shop's primary cloud provider and authenticate the login. Linking a cloud service is required to complete your setup so that signed client PDF waivers automatically sync and lock in paperless record retention.

  5. Review Legal Clauses & Medical Screening: TRF comes pre-loaded with standard legal disclosures and essential health questions pertinent to the tattoo industry. You are ready to go out of the box. Add yours when you get time, OR tap the EDITORS tab to customize health questions, medical alerts, and legal clauses as required by your attorney, health inspector, city, or state.

  6. Save Configuration: Tap SAVE & VERIFY at the bottom of the screen to push your parameters to the cloud database and return to the Welcome Screen.

Test Your TRF App Digital Intake Setup

Follow every step of this dry run to ensure your intake flow and artist controls are working perfectly:

  1. Tap New Client on the Welcome Screen.

  2. Follow the New Client Flow prompts: enter test personal information, complete the health questionnaire, capture an ID photo, and complete the client signature. Test everything as if you were the client sitting in your lobby.

  3. Tap submit to reach the Artist Notes Pane Flow. You are no longer the client; you are now the artist. Enter the Master Passcode (default is 1234).

  4. Upon access, the Client Health Considerations screen appears automatically. This screen isolates and displays critical health disclosures and medical alerts directly to the artist before work begins. You can tap Preview Waiver to review the client's inputs.

  5. Proceed into the Artist Notes Pane. Test entering tattoo setup details: select or enter pigments, batch numbers, disposable needle sizes, and take a photo of supporting documentation (such as a state-issued photo ID or minor guardianship paperwork).

  6. Complete the artist sign-off. You can either sign to complete the form or select Save For Later (available with a Basic or PRO subscription). For this test, sign as the artist and tap FINISH & UPLOAD. A success modal will confirm the waiver has been compiled and queued for cloud upload.

Check Your Cloud

Verify that your completed test waiver landed correctly in your cloud backup:

  1. Open the dedicated cloud app on your iPad (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box), or open a web browser and log into the cloud account you linked in Step 4.

  2. Locate the root directory created automatically by the app: Beluga Digital App [year] Tattoo Release Forms. (To find it quickly, use your cloud account's search bar).

  3. Open the Waivers subfolder inside this directory.

  4. Locate your test waiver PDF. Tap or click the file to expand it and review the rendered layout, captured ID photos, artist notes, and signatures.

You are officially configured and ready for your first live client!

Play With It Alone

Since you started this setup, you are probably considered "studio management" or some such. This means you can enter your Master Passcode and familiarize yourself with SETTINGS:

  • The STUDIO Tab: Manage shop identity, TRF App Login email field, logo branding, and registered artist lists.

  • The FORM OPTIONS Tab: Configure mandatory client fields, minor intake rules, language options, and screen toggles.

  • The EDITORS Tab: Add, edit, or reorder custom health questions, medical alerts, and legal clauses.

  • The REPORTS Tab: Access client lists, filter records by date or artist, and export CSV financial and demographic data.

  • The CLOUD Tab: Manage authentication and folder sync pathways for Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.

  • The CRF Tab: Enable permanent makeup (PMU) consent forms, manage specialist rosters, custom cosmetic services, specialized health disclosures, legal clauses, and blade/needle tracking.

  • The MORE Tab: Configure your shop slideshow setup, choose the app language, and log out of or delete your TRF account.


Let Your Friends Play With It

TRF comes pre-loaded with 10 free waivers. We hope you'll let the other kids in your studio play with it after you do so everyone is familiar and flowy before unleashing the TRF app on your clients. Ten forms came free with the TRF download, which should be enough to educate everyone—from resident artists to shop managers and health inspectors.

You and other studio staff might take a few minutes to tap the Main Menu Flow (the three-line menu at the top right):

Now show it to everyone.

It would be swell if you told other tattooers to give this a whirl. We worked super hard to bring you TRF and are mighty proud of it. We didn't do a whole lot of tattoos while developing this app, and we're hoping you will help us succeed. Also, because you told other artists who got on with TRF, we were able to drop $30/month off of our PRO subscription. Keep spreading the word, please and thank you!

Please tell us who you are. Reach out to us! We are glad to share your work. It matters to us that tattooers be good to each other, DAMMIT. We are living a renaissance, paying for our lives with art, changing people. It's hard out there, and it would be grand if we could uplift each other.

TRF is our contribution. We hope you love it.

 

Related Articles

Main Menu Flow

Your TRF Main Menu is command central for shop setup. By tapping the hamburger menu (the three stacked lines in the top right corner of the welcome screen), shop management can access everything needed to customize the app, manage subscriptions, and get support.

Initial Setup Flow

Initial setup of TRF app is quick and easy, especially if you are prepared with some basic information about your studio, cloud, and health codes.

The TRF-Made Waiver: Example and Explanation

The PDF waiver assembled by TRF app is a clean, organized legal document presenting text and full-color images of IDs, Birth Certificates, client designs, and other attached supporting documents. It contains data gathered from the tattoo client, artist, and studio, all searchable in your cloud—not ours.

Settings: STUDIO Tab

Customize TRF with your basics: logo, studio information, artists, health codes, and passcodes. This information will populate the final client release form.

New Client Flow

Clients make their own waivers with TRF app without help from studio staff. The client steps up to the iPad, photographs her ID, and is led by the app through a smooth-flowing info-gathering interface.

Artist Notes Pane Flow

The Artist Notes Pane serves as the secure post-intake dashboard where tattoo artists review health alerts, log session equipment, calculate financials, attach supporting documentation, and sign off to upload the waiver.

TRF App Purchases

TRF is superbly scalable. Whether you're a solo artist or a large multi-location studio chain, you can easily adjust TRF to scale the benefits and features you need.

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