From $5,000 a month in fees to $1,125 a month back
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 — had that expense. Then they didn't. Here are the actual numbers.
Before Revify: $4,500–$5,500 a month in card 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.
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 the switch done same-day.
“There were months the processor took more out of this shop than one of my artists made. That's the part that got me. We're doing twelve-hour days, hands cramping, and a company that never touched a machine is pulling a full chair's income off the top.”
Brandon Swiderski — Shop Owner, Made To Last Tattoo
Today: $0 in fees, and $1,125 a month coming back
Made To Last now pays $0 per month in processing fees.
On top of that, Revify sends the shop an average of $1,125 every month in Monthly Cash-back — 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
| Line item | Before Revify | With Revify |
|---|---|---|
| Card processing fees paid | $4,500–$5,500 / mo | $0 / mo |
| Monthly Cash-back received | $0 | $1,125 / mo (avg) |
| Terminal / equipment cost | Leased or financed | $0 — terminal included |
| Funding speed | Standard batch | Next-day funding |
| Net monthly difference | — | ≈ $6,125 in the shop's favor |
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.
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.
Figures supplied by Revify from Made To Last Tattoo's account history. Monthly Cash-back is 0.75% of card sales; the prior fee load reflects an effective traditional processing rate in the 3–4% range. Individual results vary.
