Local Business Website for State of Grace Tattoo

The Challenge

State of Grace is one of San Jose's most well-known tattoo shops, recognized for traditional Japanese work and featured by Vice TV. Their website didn't reflect any of that.

The site had been built on Shopify - originally to sell products, a direction that never took off - and it showed. What remained was a product store with a few lines of plain text and a "email us to schedule" prompt. No brand story, no artist showcase, no services detail, no social proof. The shop's reputation existed entirely offline and on Instagram, while the website was actively losing the customers who looked them up.

On top of that, every inquiry that did come in arrived as an unstructured email - no artist preference, no description of the tattoo, no reference images. The owner handling bookings had to chase down that information manually on every single lead.

The Solution

We rebuilt the site from scratch as a Next.js application - chosen not just for performance, but to lay the foundation for native scheduling functionality down the line, so future features can be built into the site rather than embedded from a third-party tool.

Design language. The visual direction draws from traditional Japanese graphic design principles: asymmetric two-column layouts with deliberate imbalance - minimal content anchoring the left, informational text on the right - generous white space, and a spare, editorial quality that lets the work speak. The aesthetic is restrained in exactly the way the art form demands.

Full local business architecture. We built out every page the site was missing: a home page with the brand story and Vice TV feature, individual service pages for tattooing, eyebrow tattooing, and removal, and a FAQ section targeting the search questions their customers actually ask.

Artist gallery and individual pages. Each artist on the roster got their own page - bio, headshot, portfolio samples, and links to their Instagram. The gallery gives prospective clients a real sense of each artist's style before they ever reach out, and gives the artists a showcase they're proud of.

Structured intake form. The contact form replaced the free-text email prompt with a guided inquiry flow: customers select their preferred artist, describe what they want, and attach reference images. When the form submits, a custom webhook transforms that data into a structured notification email to the owner - organized, complete, and ready to act on, with no follow-up needed to get basic information.

Trust and discovery signals. Reviews surface on the site for social proof, Google My Business links and an embedded map make the shop easy to find, and the Vice TV feature is woven into the homepage - turning an earned credential into a conversion asset.

The Result

Within the first month of launch, the site generated 50 contact form submissions - structured, actionable leads the owner could respond to immediately rather than chase. The artists now have a portfolio presentation they're proud of, the brand story is finally visible online, and the site is built on a foundation that can grow with the business.

When State of Grace is ready to move their scheduling in-house - consolidating the four or five different booking flows the artists currently use - the infrastructure is already there.

What We Built

• Next.js website - built for future app-like features, not just static content
• Japanese-aesthetic design - asymmetric layouts, editorial white space, restrained visual language
• Individual artist pages - bio, portfolio, and Instagram for each artist on the roster
• Structured intake form - artist selection, tattoo description, reference image upload
• Custom webhook → structured owner email - no more unformatted inquiry chaos
• Full local SEO foundation - FAQ pages, Google My Business links, map, and reviews