A tattoo studio can have good machines, good inks and a well-organised team, then lose twenty minutes because nobody knows whether there are any medium gloves left.
It is less spectacular than a full back tattoo. It is also exactly the kind of small problem that quietly eats time every day.
At Studio Pixel, several artists share the same space. That means we go through a lot of small supplies: gloves, surface protection, paper towels, razors, ink caps, cleaning products, stencil supplies, films and other disposables. None of these is complicated on its own. Together, they become a small logistics problem.
To handle that day to day, we use an inventory management tool. The useful part is not only knowing what is left today, but starting to see what we are likely to consume tomorrow.
Eyeballing stock stops working with a team
When you work alone, looking at a shelf can almost be enough. You know what you bought, what you used and what you moved.
With around ten artists, that stops working quickly. One box gets opened. Another moves to a different cupboard. Someone takes the last pack. An order arrives but nobody updates the stock. Two people buy the same thing because each thinks there is none left.
Running out is not the only problem. Overstock also costs money and takes up space. Our old post “Trop de sopalin” gives a fairly accurate picture of how sophisticated some of our older methods were.
What we actually track
We are not trying to turn every roll of paper towel into an industrial asset certified by three consultants.
We mainly track products that have three things in common: we use them regularly, running out would get in the way of work, and somebody has to remember to reorder them.
Typically:
- gloves;
- paper towels and surface protection;
- razors;
- ink caps;
- cleaning and disinfecting products;
- stencil and preparation supplies;
- films and cable or machine protection;
- some supplies specific to how each artist works.
For products that are very personal, rarely used or harmless to run out of, tracking them just for the pleasure of tracking them does not add much.
One shared quantity
The first rule is basic: everybody needs to see the same number.
When someone uses or receives supplies, we record a simple movement. Plus or minus. Not a customs declaration.
That gives us two useful things: the current quantity and the history that explains how we got there.
The history matters as much as the number. A quantity can have been wrong for three weeks without anybody knowing why. Movements let us spot a delivery, unusual consumption or a correction made after a physical count.
Do a real stock count sometimes
No system replaces actually looking at what is on the shelf.
So we do physical counts to bring the numbers back in line with reality. The idea is not to recount everything every morning. It is to periodically correct the gap between theoretical stock and what is physically there.
For important products, a quick count is often enough. When we want to reset everything properly, we can do a full inventory.
Set a threshold before zero
An alert at zero is too late. At zero, you already have a problem.
For every important product, we set a low-stock threshold. It needs to leave enough time to place an order and receive it before we run out.
We can also set a target quantity. When it is time to order, the question is no longer only “do we need some?”, but “how much do we need to get back to a comfortable level?”.
That turns a tour of the shelves into an actual shopping list.
Forecast shortages only when the data supports it
Once you have a history of movements, you can start estimating how quickly a product is being consumed.
That matters because two products with three units left do not tell the same story. One might last another two months. The other might be gone by Friday.
Invumi uses that history to estimate low-stock and shortage risk. The forecast can show the trend, the threshold and an estimated run-out date when there is enough data.
And when there is not enough data, the tool should say so. A fake precise date looks nicer on a dashboard, but it is still fake. Software has already produced enough imaginary confidence for one civilisation.
One list before ordering
Before, preparing an order often meant walking around the studio, opening cupboards, asking everyone and then discovering three days later that one product had been forgotten.
With shared quantities and thresholds, the products that need attention appear in the same place. Shortages, low stock and replenishment needs become a priority list.
A supplier can stay attached to each product too, so we do not have to rebuild the order from memory every time.
What Invumi gives us in the studio
Day to day, we mainly use inventory management software to stop looking at stock as a frozen snapshot. Knowing that 12 boxes are left is useful. Knowing how quickly they are disappearing and roughly how long they should last is much more useful.
From the movement history, we can project future consumption: spot products that are going down quickly, estimate a run-out date, see what is likely to cross its threshold soon and prepare purchases before they become urgent.
This is particularly useful for supplies we use regularly. It becomes easier to tell the difference between something that looks low but will last for weeks and something that looks fine today but will probably be empty in a few days.
The same history also helps us understand our consumption over time. That makes it easier to adjust target quantities, avoid reordering too early or too late, and build a more sensible replenishment list instead of inspecting every cupboard before each order.
The tool stays deliberately simple: catalogue, movements, inventories, thresholds, alerts, forecasts and replenishment lists. You can start with a few products or import an existing catalogue by CSV. Updating the stock should take less time than searching the studio to find out what is actually left.
Is it useful for a solo tattoo artist?
Not necessarily straight away.
If you have twenty supplies, work alone and know exactly what is in your cupboard, a list or spreadsheet can do the job perfectly well.
A dedicated tool becomes more useful when several people use the same stock, shortages become recurring, you want to keep a history, or preparing an order starts requiring a proper inspection of the studio.
The best system is not the one that collects the most data. It is the one the team actually keeps updated.
The method in five rules
- Track only the products worth tracking.
- Record incoming and outgoing stock with as little friction as possible.
- Do physical counts regularly to bring the numbers back in line with reality.
- Set a threshold before the shortage and a target replenishment quantity.
- Use history to anticipate what comes next without pretending the data is more precise than it really is.
That is the method we use in the studio. Invumi mainly helps us track and forecast our consumption: knowing where the stock is now, but also starting to see where it is likely to be in a few days or a few weeks.
