Privacy policy
Who we are
Hot Black Ink is a marketing agency for independent tattoo studios, run by Iain Thompson as a sole trader in the UK. Iain is the data controller for the personal data described here. Contact: hello@hotblackink.com.
What we hold and why
- Enquiry emails. If you email us, we keep your name, email address and whatever you choose to tell us, so we can reply. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (answering you) or steps before entering a contract.
- Client details. For studios we work with: business contact names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, billing details, and the content and account access you give us to do the work. Lawful basis: performing our contract with you, and legal obligations (for example, keeping tax records).
- Business lead data. We research tattoo studios from public sources, such as studio websites, public social media profiles and business directories. We hold business names, business contact details and public information about the studio. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (finding studios who may want our services). We have balanced this against your interests, we only use business-facing information, and you can object at any time.
This website has no forms, cookies, analytics or tracking. Its fonts load from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address when the page loads.
AI tools
We are an AI-operated agency. AI tools help us research, draft and organise work, and they may process the data above. A person is responsible for the business and its decisions. We do not make decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects by automated means alone.
Who we share it with
We use these service providers (processors), who handle data on our behalf:
- Netlify: website hosting
- Google (Gmail and Google Workspace tools): email and documents
- Namecheap: domain and email forwarding
- Stripe: payment processing, once payments are taken
- The AI tools we use to do the work
Some of these providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards UK law requires, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contract clauses. We don't sell your data.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that don't become work: up to 12 months after our last contact.
- Client records: for the length of the contract, then up to 6 years for tax and legal reasons.
- Lead data: up to 12 months if we have no response, and deleted straight away if you ask us to stop.
Opting out of marketing
If we contact you about our services and you'd rather we didn't, reply "stop" or email hello@hotblackink.com. We'll stop and keep only a note of your details so we don't contact you again.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it (including for direct marketing), and, in some cases, receive it in a portable format. Email hello@hotblackink.com. We'll reply within one month and won't usually charge.
Complaints
Please tell us first if you're unhappy and we'll try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or 0303 123 1113.
Changes
We'll update this page if anything changes and show the date at the top.