On Tuesday morning at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, our Senior Producer Maggie Nyero showed me her new tattoo by rolling up her jacket sleeve. The design was a classic, pixelated cursor arrow. TechCrunch’s Becca Szkutak got a matching cursor tattoo, while Theresa Loconsolo got a smiling moon.
I initially guessed that Maggie and Becca had wandered off to a trendy San Francisco tattoo shop during the event to cement their friendship with tech-themed ink, perhaps with Theresa joining them. That seemed more logical than the reality, which is that they got these tattoos right at Disrupt. This happened on the convention floor of the Moscone Center, while upstairs there were likely talks about product-market fit or agentic AI.
Hundreds of startups displayed their innovations in the expo hall as part of the Battlefield 200. The exhibits included robotic chefs, spacecraft insurance providers, and a company that found a shortcut for recycling plastic. Amid all this chaos, the startup Tattd transformed its booth into a miniature tattoo shop.
Tattd is a platform designed to help people find tattoo artists whose portfolios match the style they are looking for. The startup uses generative AI to create a mockup of a design. However, these AI-generated designs are not what gets inked. Instead, Tattd uses a reverse image search on the mockup to find an artist whose existing work resembles the concept. This allows the client and the artist to collaborate on an original design, just as they would in a traditional tattoo process.
The founder, Laura Schaak, explained the limitations of generic AI, stating that if you ask a system for a butterfly in a Japanese traditional style with heavier lines, it does not truly understand the request.
Just feet away from this operation, TechCrunch Deputy Managing Editor Karyne Levy was getting an escape key tattooed on her upper arm.
Before founding Tattd, Schaak led operations for two other startups: WearAway, a fashion rental company later acquired by Grin, and Lemonsqueeze, a market expansion platform acquired by Knotel. Her background, however, has always included a focus on the arts. She studied art history at New York University, and her own body features a collage of tattoos. At Disrupt, she added a California postage stamp design near her elbow.
Schaak believes that a deep connection to the tattoo world is crucial for success in this business. She noted that a number of people have tried to enter the tattoo industry without having tattoos themselves, and they have all failed. While you cannot judge a founder solely by appearance, she feels their lack of tattoos reflected a lack of interest, investment, or experience in the industry.
She stated that she is deeply passionate about the industry, is heavily tattooed, and is there to support artists in building their businesses in a way that takes care of both the client and the artist. Tattd currently has nine hundred artists on its platform and partners with a third party to help them find healthcare and financial advisors.
Schaak reported that approximately thirty people received tattoos throughout the three days of TechCrunch Disrupt. A TechCrunch logo was available on the flash sheet of design options, but fortunately or unfortunately, no one chose to ink their love for the brand onto their body.