Registering your tattoo shop for texting, in plain words.

Every business that texts from software has to be approved by the phone carriers first, down to a one-chair tattoo shop. The approval is a registration, and what it checks hardest is that your shop's legal name and EIN match the IRS's records, word for word. With the name right, it usually takes a few days. Here is what it asks for, why, how long it takes, and what to do if it comes back.

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. The phone carriers and Twilio have the final word on a registration, and their own pages are linked wherever this post leans on them.

Why does a tattoo shop have to register for texting?

Because the carriers want to know 2 things before a business texts anyone: who the business is, and that the people it texts said yes. Twilio, the company our texts go through, puts the rule in one sentence: "Anyone sending SMS/MMS messages over a 10DLC number from an application to the US must register for A2P 10DLC." The carriers call it A2P 10DLC registration. A2P means a text a business's software sends to a person, and 10DLC means an ordinary 10-digit phone number, the kind your shop's texts come from.

Registering answers both questions for your shop. Your legal name, EIN and address say who the shop is. The 2 boxes on your tattoo waiver say your tattoo and piercing clients said yes, each one optional and unticked until a client ticks it. How can my tattoo shop text its clients? covers those boxes and what goes out by text. You fill in the registration once, on the Texting screen in your dashboard, and we file it for you. Nothing you type there shows to your clients.

What does the registration ask for?

• What kind of business it is: an LLC, a corporation, a partnership, a sole proprietor with no EIN, a non-profit or a co-operative.
• The legal name, exactly as your IRS letter prints it. That's the CP-575, the notice the IRS sent when it gave your business its EIN, or a Letter 147C if the CP-575 is gone.
• The EIN, the 9 digits on that letter.
• The business address on that letter.
• A contact person and a website. Your waiver page counts as your website.
• When you got the EIN: more than 90 days ago, within the last 90 days, or not sure. A new EIN changes how long it can take, below.

The form ends with one box where you confirm the name and the EIN are exactly as your IRS letter has them. While you type, the form lists anything it sees that might come back, like a legal name that reads like the name on your sign, or an LLC's name without the LLC. Your IRS letter shows where the name sits on the letter, and how to get a 147C from the IRS if yours is gone.

Why does the legal name have to match your IRS letter word for word?

Because the review compares what you type with the IRS's records for your EIN, and close is not a match. Twilio's own instructions say to take the name off the CP-575: "Do not use the legal business name found on the W2 or W9 forms as they may differ from the CP 575 notice." A name that runs onto 2 lines of the letter goes in whole, every line above the address. And it has to be the IRS's letter: the paper your state gave your LLC is not the same thing.

One slip is enough to send a registration back. Say a shop called Ink & Iron Parlor is owned by a company whose letter reads R ASH ENTERPRISES LLC. The registration needs R ASH ENTERPRISES LLC, not the name on the sign. If the letter reads INK & IRON PARLOR LLC instead, the registration needs every word of that, the LLC included.

The form also takes a photo of the letter. It's optional, and it becomes required when the form sees a name or an EIN that might come back. We read the letter and compare it with what you typed before anything is filed, and if the spellings differ, the form offers you the letter's.

How long does registering take?

Filling it in takes a few minutes, and the review usually takes a few days, now and then more than a week. Each step shows on the Texting screen as it finishes: your shop, verified; your texts, reviewed; your local number. When your shop is approved, we email you, your shop gets its own local number, there is $5 on your texting balance, and whatever you turned on for texting starts going out by itself, inside the hours your state allows. texting.tattoo shows what those texts look like on a client's phone.

A new EIN can stretch that wait by weeks. Twilio's page says "Newly issued EINs or equivalent tax IDs can take 30-90 days to propagate across database validation systems." So a shop whose EIN is a month old can come back with every word right, because the records the review checks don't have it yet. That is why the form asks when you got it.

A shop that isn't on Pro yet fills in the form first and checks out for Pro next. Nothing goes to the review before the payment clears, and the registration goes in the moment it does.

What if my shop has no EIN?

Then you register as yourself. Twilio's page says the sole proprietor path is for a business with no tax ID, so on the form you pick "Sole proprietor, no EIN" and give the name the shop goes by (or your own), your address and your own mobile number.

Once your shop is verified, that mobile gets a text from (915) 278-2000 asking you to confirm by replying YES. Twilio's rules give you 24 hours to reply, and one mobile number can be used for this 3 times, ever, so use the cell phone in your pocket, not the shop's landline or a number from a texting service. If the text never comes, or the 24 hours run out, press Text it again on the Texting screen.

If your business has an EIN, you register with it, even as a sole proprietor. On the form, an LLC registers with its EIN, even an LLC of one person.

What does it mean when a registration comes back?

It means the review couldn't match something you gave it. Most registrations that fail, Twilio says, fail on a mismatch with the government's tax records: the legal name or the address isn't what the IRS has for that EIN. If the name matches your letter exactly and it still came back, the likely reason is a new EIN the records don't know yet.

The Texting screen says why it came back in plain words, what that usually means, and the one thing to do, and we email you the same. Registering your shop for texting, in the help section, says it too. Depending on why, there are up to 3 ways forward:

• Fix it and resubmit. If the name or the address was off, change it to match your IRS letter and press Resubmit. Resubmitting is free, up to 3 times.
• Wait. If your EIN is new, we send your registration in again for you at 30 days, and again at 90 if it comes back, free.
• Pay $10 to try again. Upload your IRS letter, the CP-575 or a 147C, not a letter from your state, and pay on the checkout page. A person then checks your registration against the letter by hand, and that usually takes 5 to 7 business days. No money moves until you press that button and pay.

What does registering cost?

In October 2026, filing the registration costs a shop nothing beyond Pro, the plan texting comes with: the registration's own fees are ours. Resubmitting is free, and the manual review is $10, only if you choose it. Pro itself is $150 a year or $15 a month, on top of your waivers.tattoo account.

It all turns on your IRS letter

The 3 answers the review checks hardest, the legal name, the EIN and the address, are all printed on your IRS letter. With the letter in front of you, the name goes in the way the IRS printed it and the EIN the way the IRS assigned it, and the only thing left that can send a registration back is a new EIN's calendar. Without it, a shop types the name it answers the phone with, and waits a few days to hear that it was wrong.