How Made To Last Tattoo Saved $73,500 With Revify Dual Pricing

Most tattoo shops never actually read their processing statement. The cards get swiped, the deposit lands a little lighter than the tickets said, and there's a client in the chair at eleven. That's how a five-figure annual expense goes unexamined for years.

Made To Last Tattoo — run by Chris Stuart and Brandon Swiderski — was paying about $60,000 a year in credit card processing costs. Today the shop runs dual pricing (a card price and a cash price), and Revify sends roughly $13,500 a year back to it. Here are the actual numbers.

Before Revify: about $60,000 a year in credit card processing fees

The shop was paying an average of $4,500 to $5,500 every month in card processing fees. Not a fee here and there — a standing monthly bill roughly the size of a second rent payment. Annualized, that's $54,000 to $66,000 leaving the studio for the privilege of being paid.

“I'd open the statement and see forty-eight hundred, five thousand, gone — and I couldn't tell you what half of it was. Interchange, PCI fee, monthly minimum, some rate they call non-qualified. Nobody could explain it to me in a sentence. That was five grand a month for the privilege of letting my clients pay me.”

Chris Stuart — Owner, Made To Last Tattoo

That's the part shop owners recognize instantly: the bill is large, and it's unreadable. Interchange, assessments, PCI compliance fees, monthly minimums, downgrade and “non-qualified” rates — priced so that no one can tell what they actually pay — which is exactly why processing costs add up for most shops.

What changed: dual pricing

Revify moved the shop to dual pricing. Every item carries a cash price and a card price, posted plainly at the counter and on the terminal, so the cost of accepting a card sits with the transaction that creates it instead of with the shop.

Nothing about taking payment got harder. Same counter, same tap-and-go, same next-day money — with the terminal included and a quick switch.

“We're doing twelve-hour days, hands cramping, putting everything into this shop. Now every card we run pays us back at the end of the month. That's how it should work for people who actually do the work.”

Brandon Swiderski — Shop Manager, Made To Last Tattoo

Today: dual pricing, and $1,125 a month coming back

Made To Last now shows clients a card price and a cash price at checkout.

On top of that, Revify sends the shop an average of $1,125 every month in Monthly Cash-back — up to 0.75% of card sales, paid back to the studio.

So the line item that used to cost about $5,000 a month now pays them. Combined, that's roughly $6,125 a month moving in the shop's direction — about $73,500 a year.

Before and after, side by side

What $73,500 a year buys a tattoo shop

It isn't abstract. That's a new artist station and the build-out around it. It's a booth at four or five conventions with travel covered. It's a real ad budget, a real aftercare line, an apprentice on payroll, or simply the owners paying themselves properly.

Every shop can run these same numbers. The money was always the shop's. It was just being routed somewhere else.

“Now the fee line is zero and Revify sends us about eleven hundred back. First month I called to make sure it wasn't a mistake.”

Chris Stuart — Owner, Made To Last Tattoo

Run your own numbers

Punch in one month of card sales and see what your shop is paying today versus what Revify would send back: revifyhq.com/savings-calculator.

No setup fees. No equipment cost. Cancel anytime.

Want the version built around this shop’s numbers? See the tattoo shop card fee calculator.

Figures supplied by Revify from Made To Last Tattoo's account history. Monthly Cash-back is up to 0.75% of card sales; the prior fee load reflects an effective traditional processing rate in the 3–4% range. Individual results vary.