What your waiver form asks, and how to change it

Every client who signs your waiver form answers the same core questions. Your state's rule can add more, and your dashboard has switches for the rest. This page goes through all 3, and the parts that stay on every form.

What does every client fill in?

From the top of the form down:

• Who they are. Name, age, birth date, phone number, email and address.
• What they're getting. The artist's name, what the piece is, and where it goes on the body. If your shop does tattoos and piercings, your client picks one first and the form follows it. A piercing also asks what the jewelry is made of.
• Their health. Whether they have a skin condition, whether they're pregnant or nursing, and a box for their medical history, like diabetes or seizures. They can leave pregnant or nursing blank, and a yes doesn't stop the signing: it's on the record for you and your artist to read. A piercing adds a metal allergy, a keloid or raised scar, and recent dental work for a piercing in the mouth.
• The consent. Short sentences they tick one at a time: the artist explained the work, it's a permanent change, they'll follow your aftercare, your shop doesn't give refunds, and the rest of the standard set. Then the box that accepts the terms.
• Their ID and their signature. A photo of their ID, the date, and their signature, drawn with a finger on their phone.

Under the terms are 2 more boxes, and both are optional: one to hear from your shop after today about their aftercare and healing, and one for your news and offers. A client signs whether they tick them or not. Texting your clients covers what those 2 boxes turn on.

Some states want the artist's signature on every client record too. There, every waiver in your dashboard gets a pad, and you or your artist sign it once the work is done. Everywhere else, it's a switch you can turn on.

What does my state add?

Your state's rule can ask for more than the standard form does. When it does, your waiver form asks it, from the state your shop is set to, and there's nothing for you to turn on. It can be a question about allergies or a bleeding disorder, whether your client is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, an emergency contact, the artist's license number, the aftercare in writing, or a notice your client ticks.

To see your state's list, open the compliance page, pick your state, and look for What the form asks in your state. Each line is the rule's own words, with where it comes from.

Your shop's state is in Settings, on the Shop details tab. Until it's set, your form is the standard one, and a banner in your dashboard says so.

What can I switch on or off?

In your dashboard, open Settings → Waiver form. It has 4 groups, with a row at the top that jumps to each, and every change saves as you make it.

What you do

• Tattoos, piercings, or both. This decides which consent form your client signs.
• Jewelry, for a shop that pierces: ask your client what it's made of, or name the material you use.

Who can sign

• Tattooing and piercing under 18, each with a parent present, where your state allows it. When a parent signs for a minor covers these.
• A photo of the birth certificate or guardianship papers when a parent signs.
• The stud gun question, in the states whose rule treats an ear pierced with a stud gun differently.

What the form asks

• Spanish. It's on: a phone set to Spanish opens your form in Spanish, and your client can switch. Untick it for English only.
• Returning clients. A "Been here before?" button fills in a returning client's name, birth date and address once their phone and email match a waiver they signed with you.
• Drugs or alcohol, and a communicable disease, where your state leaves them to you.
• The price, and how your client is paying.
• Cash preferred. A box your client ticks that says paying by card adds your fee, in our words with your percent, or in your own.
• An emergency contact.
• Their physician: name, phone and address, which your client can leave blank. There's a box for each kind of work you do.
• The ID photo. The switch Let clients choose a saved photo of their ID starts on, for a client whose ID lives on their phone. A saved photo is a copy for your file, not proof of age, and checking the ID the way your state requires is yours.
• Needle and ink lot numbers: a spot for a photo of the needle pack and the ink. Your client can skip it.
• Your own clauses. Anything you want clients to agree to in your own words, like a release that names your LLC, or your photo policy. Each one is a box they tick before they sign, and it prints on the signed copy.

After the work

These are lines you or your artist fill in on each waiver in your dashboard once the work is done. They don't change what your client signed.

• The final price.
• The client's condition at release, and any emergency action.
• The lot numbers and expiration dates of the needles, tubes, cartridges and inks you used, and which ones every record has to have. A cartridge's lot number and expiration date count for both the needle and the tube.
• The artist's signature, with the date and time.

What stays on every form, and why?

Some parts stay on every form, because the signed copy has to hold up when your health department reads it.

• What your state's rule names. Your form asks it whatever a switch says. In Settings, where the switch would be, a sentence says your state's rule asks it, with a link to the rule, word for word.
• The consent sentences and the terms box. Your form checks the terms box, and so do we when the waiver comes in, so no waiver goes through without it. Your own clauses come after the standard sentences, so they add to the set.
• The ID photo, the date and the signature.
• The health questions every form asks: a skin condition, pregnant or nursing, and the medical history box.

A change you make shows on your form from then on. A waiver already signed keeps exactly what that client read and signed.

What if I can't find the switch I need?

Write to chris@waivers.tattoo and say what you want your form to ask, or to stop asking. If there's a switch for it, we turn it on for you and write back once it's on. If there isn't, we tell you what we can do.