ENSO Needles

How do you come out with a product that’s “better” than the one you have been marketing as the “best” for years? You actually make it better and highlight why that should matter to the consumer. The founder of TATSoul and I discussed creating a new needle line aimed at becoming the “Hattori Hanzo Sword” of needle lines. Envy ENSO Needles would be positioned differently from all other needles. These weren’t needles for everyone. They aimed to carve out their place at the top as the best.

Target: Artists that are concerned with quality

Insight: Tattoo artists will pay more for better-quality needles

Voice/Vibe: Luxury, mysterious, exclusive

I drew inspiration from high-end Japanese knife and whiskey brands when preparing the creative brief, and working with my team on the packaging and copy for the ENSO Needle line. My goal was to highlight the quality of the steel, the precision craftsmanship, and why that should matter to the artist.

ENSO Needle photography would include a mix of natural lighting as well as grainy and desaturated edits. Hero and in-use imagery were often shot with Tungsten lighting for a cinematic aesthetic. Settings were selected with the goal of relating to an artist who cares about their craft. Attributes included grit, POV, raw materials, artist-at-work, detail, and honest emotion. I brought on the talented Alex Derrick around the time of the ENSO launch to direct video and photography.

The sample boxes would be an artist’s introduction to the Envy ENSO line and I wanted the experience to be awesome. I reached out to tattoo artist and illustrator, Thomas Fernandez to create designs centered around Japanese folklore that could be used for not just packaging, but various marketing collateral. I thought it could lend itself to the “Japanese Steel”. I leveraged sales data from the already popular Envy Needle line and included a curated variety of the most popular groupings among artists.

ENSO Needles would become one of TATSoul’s top-selling product lines to date and would contribute to a massive uptick in conversion for the brand in the first year of sales.

Not long after the ENSO launch, I was responsible for piloting a multi-thousand SKU website migration. We were transitioning to a new more robust ERP+CMS, which included a full site redesign. With the most popular and highest-grossing product category being tattoo needles, my team and I focused on creating a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience for artists that would communicate what set Envy & ENSO needles apart. It was also a priority to give artists the ability to navigate easily between configurations to drive AOV and accommodate bulk ordering.

Experience The Difference

316L Japanese Steel

Experience The Difference 316L Japanese Steel

The ENSO Needle launch included a custom-designed needle display for events. The display featured discs of magnifying glass and motion-sensor LED lights that would illuminate as people approached. Popular configurations would be showcased, as well as an empty slot or two to allow artists visiting the booth the ability to closely examine needles they were interested in.

Convention Display & Strategy Project

The Open Road Tattoo Tour provided the perfect opportunity to get ENSO Needles and Wrath Tubes into the hands of some of the nation’s top artists. Additionally, all of the artists working at the 11 extremely influential tour-stop-shops (10 different cities coast to coast) would see these big-named tattoo artists using TATSoul supplies and have access to them first-hand. In addition to the YouTube video weekly episodes, the artists involved posted on social media throughout the tour and tagged the brand.

Double-sided postcards featuring testimonials from influential tattoo artists and the ENSO Needle line’s top selling points. The cards were included in orders and taken to events. For impact, the cards were thicker cardstock and featured the ENSO logo in the same foil and spot UV finish as the ENSO boxes. This was tattooing’s luxury brand of needles and my goal was for all of the collateral around the product line to communicate just that.