Flash Nº 01 · Creative & Media · Latin America
Tinta Brava
Tattoo studio, 4 artists · Buenos Aires
How a four-artist tattoo studio became the top search in Palermo
#1
map pack across 4 barrios
- Engagement
- 6 months
- Plan
- Local
- City
- Buenos Aires
The challenge
Bookings came only via Instagram DMs; Google showed generic directories and two chain studios for 'tatuajes Palermo'.
Four artists, a waiting list and an Instagram following of 38,000, yet on Google the studio barely existed. Someone in Palermo typing “tatuajes” saw a directory and two branches of a chain, each with hundreds of reviews.
Every booking went through DMs, so nobody could see where demand came from, and enquiries from people who don’t follow the studio, often visitors and new arrivals in the barrio, went to the chains.
The brief: own the map pack in Palermo and the three barrios next to it, without losing the studio’s independent feel.
Diagnosis · the stencil check
Seven flaws in the linework before a drop of colour.
Graded like a tattoo touch-up: Blowout blocks ranking entirely, Patchy caps it, Faded leaves reach on the table.
- 01 · LocalBlowout
Wrong primary category
The Business Profile was filed as “Tienda” (shop), so it was not eligible for “tatuajes” map-pack queries at all.
- 02 · LocalBlowout
Three addresses in the wild
After a 2023 move, 9 directory listings still showed the old Gurruchaga address and a second Maps pin collected reviews.
- 03 · TechnicalPatchy
A one-page site behind a link-in-bio
No crawlable pages for artists or styles; the only booking path was an Instagram DM, invisible to Google.
- 04 · TechnicalPatchy
No structured data
No LocalBusiness, Person or opening-hours markup; Google had no entity tying four artists to one studio.
- 05 · ContentPatchy
Portfolios locked in Instagram
Hundreds of healed-work photos, none on the site or the profile; the profile had 6 photos versus 300+ for the chains.
- 06 · ContentFaded
Spanish-only, Palermo-only
Nothing for Villa Crespo, Colegiales or Chacarita, and nothing for English-speaking visitors staying in Palermo Soho.
- 07 · ReputationPatchy
41 reviews, none answered
Reviews arrived by chance. Chain studios nearby had 300–600 and replied to every one.
The strategy
Four tactics, one sheet.
Built on our Local plan: fix the entity first, then build the signals Google uses to rank a studio in each barrio, which are relevance, distance and prominence.
Google Business Profile
Category, services with prices, attributes, a booking link, weekly healed-work photos and a Q&A covering pain, prices and aftercare. One pin, one address, one phone number.
Artist pages
One page per artist: style, healed gallery, guest-spot dates and a direct enquiry form. Person schema links each artist to the studio, so artist-name searches lead back to the map pack.
Local citations
31 directories corrected, 9 duplicates closed, new listings on Argentine maps, tourism and tattoo-convention sites, so every source shows the same name, address and phone.
Review strategy
An aftercare card with a QR code, given out at the two-week healed check, when people are happiest with the work. Every review answered within 48 hours.
Timeline · 6 sessions
From stencil to healed, month by month.
Use the arrow keys or tap a month.
Month 1 of 6
Stencil: fix the profile
- Primary category moved from “Tienda” to “Estudio de tatuajes”; secondary set to “Estudio de piercing”.
- One canonical address (Thames, Palermo Soho) after the 2023 move; old pin removed.
- Booking link to the website form, replacing “DM us on Instagram”.
- Map-pack #1 terms
- 2+2
- Google reviews
- 58+17
- Enquiries from Google
- 27+4
Results · the finished sheet
#1 map pack across 4 barrios.
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
- FLASH Nº 01
0 → 18
Map-pack #1 terms
Swallows find their way home. So did searchers: core terms where Tinta Brava holds the #1 map-pack spot.
- FLASH Nº 02
+204%
Booking enquiries from Google
Google-sourced booking requests, 23 a month at the start, 70 by month six.
- FLASH Nº 03
4 of 4
Artist pages ranking top 5
Every artist has a page that ranks top five for their own style, plus a link from the studio profile.
- FLASH Nº 04
41 → 236
Google reviews
Reviews asked for at the healed-photo check, never in the chair. Average rating 4.9.
Rankings, before and after
| Keyword | Barrio | Searches / mo | Before | Month 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tatuajes palermo | Palermo | 2,400 | — | #1 |
| tattoo palermo | Palermo | 1,300 | — | #1 |
| estudio de tatuajes cerca | Palermo | 1,900 | 14 | #1 |
| tatuajes villa crespo | Villa Crespo | 720 | — | #1 |
| tatuaje fine line buenos aires | City-wide | 880 | 31 | #2 |
| tatuajes colegiales | Colegiales | 390 | — | #1 |
| cover up tatuaje caba | City-wide | 320 | — | #3 |
| tatuajes chacarita | Chacarita | 260 | — | #1 |
| tatuaje tradicional palermo | Palermo | 210 | 22 | #1 |
— = not in the top 20. Searches are modelled monthly estimates.
Artist pages ranking top 5: 4 of 4
- #2Mora Quiroga · Fine line“tatuaje fine line palermo”
- #3Tano Bellini · Tradicional“tatuaje tradicional buenos aires”
- #1Juli Sosa · Blackwork“blackwork tattoo caba”
- #1Rocío Paz · Lettering & filete“tatuaje filete porteño”
The map pack, barrio by barrio
Mock-up of a Google Maps result. Switch barrio and period.
- Tinta Brava4.9 ★ (236) · Estudio de tatuajes
- Agujas Unidas Palermo4.3 ★ (640) · Tattoo chain
- Taller Cuervo4.8 ★ (171) · Estudio de tatuajes
Get a plan like this
The Local plan behind this sheet, adapted to your city, your barrios and your artists.