The deal between you and Estilo

01. Introduction

Estilo is a booking platform built by a working tattoo artist for service workers — tattooers, piercers, hair stylists, barbers, PMU artists, lash and nail techs, estheticians, and massage therapists — and the clients who book them. These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a contract between you and Estilo (referred to below as "Estilo," "we," "us," or "our"). They cover both sides — artists and clients — with a few sections that apply only to one.

By creating an account or using Estilo, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the service. If you stop agreeing later, you can delete your account at any time and walk away with your data.

Where it matters, Estilo's defaults resolve toward the artist when there's a real interest tradeoff. We're honest about that. Section 8 explains.

02. Account creation

• You must be 18 or older to use Estilo — both as an artist and as a client. We do not knowingly let minors create accounts.
• Provide accurate information. Your name, email, phone number, and (for paid tiers) business identity must be true and current. Misrepresentation is grounds for suspension or removal.
• One person per account; no sharing. Account credentials cannot be shared. If two artists work at the same shop, each one needs their own account. Studios and Shops are managed via the multi-artist team features, not by sharing one login.
• Phone verification. Some features (filing a Trust & Safety report, receiving a Client Snapshot) require phone verification via SMS. We use Twilio Verify for this. You consent to receive a one-time verification code by SMS when you turn on these features.
• U.S. only at launch. Estilo currently supports U.S. (+1) phone numbers and U.S. tax forms. International expansion is planned but not yet supported.
• Account security is yours to maintain. Keep your password safe. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has accessed your account.

03. Pricing & fees

Pricing is the whole thesis of Estilo. We don't surcharge clients. We don't add hidden fees on top of subscription. The numbers below match the master pricing model exactly.

Subscription tiers

Style-Matcher commission

2% with $3 floor, $12 cap, on matched bookings only. Style-Matcher is the aesthetic-based discovery flow that connects clients with artists whose work fits their vision. The 2% is the only revenue-share line on artist deposits in the entire platform. It is opt-in.

Open Briefs (Client Job Board)

The "post a tattoo idea, verified artists DM you back" reverse marketplace charges a flat $5 platform coordination fee per claimed brief, paid only when a client confirms an artist for a posted brief. No fee on browsing, posting, or replying.

Stripe processing fees

Stripe charges its standard processing fee on card payments (currently around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S., subject to Stripe's published rates). Stripe processing fees are passed to the client at checkout, not deducted from the artist's payout. This is the anti-extraction principle in action — the worker doing the work doesn't subsidize the payment rail.

Tax-deduction transparency

Estilo subscription fees, Style-Matcher commission, and Open Briefs platform fees are ordinary business expenses for an independent service worker. They show up in the Finance module already categorized for Schedule C. We don't make you hunt for them.

Pricing source of truth: ESTILO-MASTER-DESIGN.md §2 — locked 2026-05-04. The PRICING constant in estilo-CHECKPOINT-112.html reads from the same numbers; if the constant ever drifts from this page, the master doc wins and we'll update both.

04. Bookings & deposits

Deposits held by Stripe

When a client pays a deposit through Estilo, the funds are held by Stripe until the session is completed (or cancelled per the rules below). Estilo does not hold those funds itself.

Cancellations

• Client cancels with notice: per the artist's published cancellation policy. The artist sets the rules; Estilo enforces them. Many artists run a "deposits non-refundable inside 48 hours" rule; some are stricter. Whatever the rule says is what applies.
• Artist cancels: client gets a full deposit refund unless the artist's policy specifies otherwise and the client agreed at booking time.
• Mutual cancellation: handled via the in-app DM, with an optional split-deposit refund button if the artist enables it.

No-shows

If a client books a session and doesn't show up, the artist's no-show policy applies (typically: deposit forfeited, additional charge per the artist's posted policy if a card is on file). Repeat no-shows from the same client may also generate Trust & Safety signals (M-2 category) that other artists see during future booking requests.

Off-platform bookings

If you take a deposit outside Estilo (cash, Venmo, your own Stripe), Estilo charges nothing on it AND tracks nothing about it. The free tier permits off-platform deposit collection without restriction. We don't penalize you for taking cash bookings — that's the whole "service-worker-first" point.

05. Payouts

Stripe Connect Express

Payouts to artists run through Stripe Connect Express. Estilo never holds your money. Stripe handles the KYC at onboarding (verifying your identity and tax info), generates your year-end 1099-K where required, and ships funds to your bank account on the schedule you configure.

Payout schedule (configurable)

• Daily, weekly, or monthly — you pick from your Stripe Connect dashboard.
• Default for new free-tier artists is set per the launch decisions document and may be changed at any time from your Connect dashboard.

60-day dormant account auto-pause

If your Connect account is inactive for 60 days (no incoming bookings, no payouts), we will pause your payment line to keep platform costs sustainable for the artists who are using it. Two weeks before that pause, we send a warning email. Re-activation is one click — your data and account remain intact during the pause; only the payment line goes dormant.

Source: DECISIONS-NEEDED.md §2.7. The 60-day window is a deliberate balance — long enough for snowbird artists and seasonal pros, short enough that we're not absorbing $2/mo per dormant Connect account at scale.

Tax forms

Stripe will generate a 1099-K for each artist who exceeds the IRS reporting threshold for the calendar year. Estilo does not file your taxes — we provide a Schedule C live preview, deduction tracking, and CPA-ready summary export. You file with your CPA or your tax software of choice.

06. Trust & Safety

No public reviews

Estilo does not publish public star ratings, public reviews, or public commentary about artists. Public expression of appreciation happens through hearts (love-only) and completed-booking counts — both positive signals. Negative experiences route to a private report system, reviewed by a human, not by an algorithm and not by the public.

Private severity-tiered reports

Clients can submit private reports about an artist when something goes wrong. Reports are categorized into a 4-tier severity model (S0 Crisis, S1 Severe, S2 Moderate, S3 Low) with category-driven SLAs:

• S0 (Crisis) — pages an admin within 1 hour, freezes both accounts pending review.
• S1 (Severe) — admin queue, < 24 hours.
• S2 (Moderate) — AI summary + recommendation, < 7 days unless escalated.
• S3 (Low) — AI auto-handled with templates and pattern flags.
• Money disputes (M-* categories) hit a 1–3 day fast-lane SLA regardless of base severity, because financial grievances escalate fast.

Cross-artist private flag intelligence

Artists can flag clients privately. Other artists see aggregated flag signals at booking-request time (the "Client Snapshot") with attribution masked to "verified artist, X ago." Flagger names are never exposed to other artists. Clients never see what artists wrote about them. This data is internal use only — it is not sold, not shared with partners, and not used for advertising.

Right to investigate, suspend, or ban

Estilo retains the right to investigate any account for violations of these Terms or applicable law, to suspend an account during an investigation, and to permanently remove an account where the evidence supports it. Routine moderation is performed by Estilo's admin team using the published moderation rulebook. Crisis-tier (S0) cases trigger immediate account freezes pending review.

Source: TRUST-SAFETY-DESIGN.md v0.2 + MODERATION-RULEBOOK.md. Final defamation/anti-discrimination language ships with lawyer review pre-launch (P0.7 in the master priority list).

07. Acceptable use

Targeting protected classes is the line, not vocabulary

Estilo's content moderation rule, in plain English: targeting is the line, not vocabulary. Profanity, vulgarity, edgy self-naming, and reclamation language are allowed in artist-controlled UGC (profile bios, flash deal titles, portfolio captions, marketing copy you write for your own bookings). What is not allowed:

• Slurs aimed at protected classes in clear hate context.
• Targeted harassment of identifiable people.
• The hardest slurs (e.g., the N-word) used in branding contexts.

Examples: "Whore Tattoos" as an artist name is allowed (self-applied, reclaimed, subcultural). "Stupid Bitch Flash Sale" as a promo title is allowed (generic noun phrase, not aimed at anyone). "Sarah K is a stupid bitch" in a profile bio is denied (targeted harassment of a named person).

Bannable conduct

• Targeting protected classes with hate-context content — bannable on first or second offense depending on severity.
• Spam. Mass messaging unsolicited recipients. Fake reviews, fake bookings, click farms.
• Fraud. Chargeback fraud, fake identity, fake business, payment manipulation.
• Impersonation. Pretending to be another artist or client. Squatting on a real person's name.
• Harassment. Persistent targeted contact after someone has asked you to stop. Doxxing.
• Off-platform circumvention to evade fees on paid tiers. If you're on Solo+ and explicitly route Estilo-originated bookings off-platform to avoid the platform's role, that violates the spirit of the agreement. (See "Off-platform on Free tier" below for the legitimate path.)
• Illegal activity. Anything that would violate U.S. federal or applicable state law in the artist's location or the client's location.

Off-platform deposits on Free tier are permitted

The free tier is a specific honest-deal: Estilo charges 5% only on deposits Estilo processes. If you take a cash deposit, a Venmo deposit, or run your own Stripe outside Estilo, that's fine — Estilo charges nothing AND tracks nothing about it. We don't penalize free-tier artists for cash bookings. That's the whole point.

What we do not moderate (allowed UGC)

To be clear about the things tattoo and beauty culture commonly include that some platforms wrongly suppress: artistic nudity, religious figures across traditions, occult/Satanic/pagan imagery, gore and body horror, surgical themes, weapons in artistic context, blood and skeletons, drug/alcohol/smoking imagery in artistic context, controversial historical figures rendered artistically, piercing and suspension, scar coverage and mastectomy work, sex-worker iconography, subcultural and prison-tradition tattoos. None of these are moderation issues on Estilo. Source: MODERATION-RULEBOOK.md §A (Allowed list).

08. Service-worker-first

Practical consequences:

• Listed price is checkout price. Estilo never adds a percentage to the client's card and labels it as the artist's fee. If the artist quoted $200, the client pays $200 (plus Stripe's processing fee, transparently disclosed at checkout — never a hidden surcharge).
• Disputed funds are held by Stripe rather than being clawed back from the artist's account.
• Trust & Safety reports go through a private, human-reviewed system rather than a public coercion lever.
• Tax-help features are included on every paid tier without an additional paywall on the basics. The free tier still gets the export.

If you're a client, this isn't anti-client. It's pro-labor. Read it as a statement of where the platform's gravity sits.

09. Intellectual property

Artist content is the artist's

Artists retain all rights to portfolio images, flash designs, custom drawings, profile content, services and pricing copy, and any other content they upload or create on Estilo. You own your work. By uploading, you grant Estilo a limited, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, and serve that content within the Estilo platform for the purpose of operating the booking service. That license ends when you delete the content or close your account.

Client content

Client-uploaded content (reference photos, description text, brief posts) — same idea: the client owns it; Estilo gets a limited license to display it within the platform for booking purposes only.

Estilo's content

The Estilo brand, logo, app design, copy, code, and platform-original content are owned by Estilo. You may not copy, scrape, or redistribute these without written permission.

IP theft enforcement

Stealing flash, copying another artist's custom design, or using an artist's design without booking is enumerated in the Trust & Safety taxonomy as category M-5 (IP theft). Reports of IP theft are taken seriously and route to admin review.

10. Disputes

Plain-language dispute process

If you have a problem with a booking, a payout, or with another user:

1. Try the in-app DM first. Most disputes (no-show miscommunication, schedule confusion, payment timing) resolve directly between artist and client when they actually talk.
2. If that doesn't work, file an Estilo dispute. The dispute UI lets you state the claim, upload evidence, and track status. For payment disputes specifically, the Stripe-mirrored workflow lets you upload the consent form, photos, message log, and other counter-evidence.
3. Mediation by Estilo. Estilo's admin team reviews the case using the published moderation rulebook and the Trust & Safety severity model. Money disputes get the 1–3 day fast-lane SLA regardless of base severity.
4. Stripe / cardholder bank ruling. For card chargebacks, the final decision is made by the cardholder's bank using Stripe's documented process. Estilo does not control that final ruling.

The lawyer-reviewed final policy will set out the formal dispute jurisdiction, applicable law, and the small-claims carve-out (which most pro-consumer Terms of Service preserve). The substance — no per-dispute fees, no forced arbitration, no published-SLA-on-the-client — is locked.

11. Termination

You can leave any time

You can close your account from Settings at any time. We'll process most data deletion promptly per the Privacy Policy retention rules. Financial records tied to bookings may be retained for 7 years to satisfy IRS requirements; everything else goes.

Estilo can suspend or remove an account

For violations of these Terms or applicable law, repeated bad-faith reports, or fraudulent activity, Estilo may suspend or remove your account. We will, where practical:

• Tell you what rule was applied and what evidence we weighed.
• Give you a chance to respond unless the case is a crisis-tier safety matter.
• Let you export your data on the way out unless legal requirements (anti-fraud, anti-abuse) require a hold.

What survives termination

Sections that, by their nature, should outlive your account: intellectual property (each side keeps what they own), confidentiality of Trust & Safety records, retention rules in the Privacy Policy, and Estilo's internal moderation records of any rule violations.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time as the product evolves, vendors change, or laws change. When we make a meaningful change, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• Add an entry to the changelog (introduced in the v1 lawyer-reviewed release).
• For significant changes, notify active users by email and in-app at least 14 days before the change takes effect.

If you keep using Estilo after a meaningful change, that means you accept the updated Terms. If you don't, you can export your data and close your account at any time.

13. Contact

Questions, complaints, dispute escalations, or law-enforcement inquiries:

Email: hello@estilo.app

Trust & Safety reports go through the in-app report flow rather than email — that gets them into the right queue with the right SLA.

Mailing address, registered-entity details, and notice address ship in the lawyer-reviewed final policy.