.ink Domain
Make Your Mark With .ink
Register your .ink domain from just £25.49/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .ink domain?
The .ink domain straddles tattoo culture, writing, printing, and illustration. Tattoo artists use it for portfolio sites. Writers and publishers use it because ink is synonymous with the written word. Print shops and calligraphers find it equally fitting. That versatility, packed into three characters, makes .ink one of the more interesting creative TLDs.
Who should register .ink?
Tattoo artists, writers, publishers, print shops, calligraphers, and illustrators.
Why choose .ink?
- Three characters, multiple meanings
- Bridges tattoo, writing, and print
- Highly memorable and distinctive
- Versatile creative branding
Who runs .ink, and since when
Registry data from the .ink delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- Registry Services, LLC
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 27 February 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no trade or portfolio check
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £25.49 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Tattoo, print or prose: reading a .ink domain
Three trades own the word ink and none of them owns it outright. A tattooist means one thing by it, a printer means another, and a writer means a third. That is the character of the .ink domain in a sentence: three letters carrying three meanings, memorable and ambiguous in the same stroke.
Whether the ambiguity costs you depends entirely on the name in front. If the word before the dot settles the question, a needle reference or a press reference or your own byline, the extension is doing useful work. If the name is neutral, visitors will guess, and a fair number will guess wrong before they reach your first paragraph.
Tattoo artists have a decision here that nobody points out. Registry Services runs both .ink and .tattoo as part of GoDaddy Registry, and .tattoo removes the ambiguity completely. It costs more each year. If your work is tattooing and nothing else, the more expensive extension may be the cheaper mistake to avoid.
For writers, publishers and print shops, the appeal is brevity. Three characters after the dot keeps the whole address tight, which matters on a business card, in a signature and in the small space a social profile gives you for a link.
Registration is open, with no trade check, no portfolio and no membership of anything. The ICANN registry contract dates from December 2013 and the extension went live the following year, so this is settled ground rather than a recent experiment.
Is .ink the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.ink works well if
- You are a tattoo artist whose studio name is taken on .com and you want something short that still reads as the trade.
- You write, publish or run a small press, where ink is the older and better metaphor for the work.
- You want the shortest extension available, because the address has to survive a card and an email signature.
- The word in front of the dot already names your trade, so the extension can be the flourish rather than the explanation.
Look elsewhere if
- Your work is only tattooing. A .tattoo removes the guesswork, and the extra few pounds a year buys clarity you will use daily.
- Customers will hear the address before they see it. Ink and inc sound identical down a phone line.
- You need a British local signal for a studio taking walk-ins. A .co.uk provides that and this does not.
Tattooing full time and nothing else? A .tattoo says it once and says it properly. See .tattoo pricing.
.ink vs .tattoo: which should you register?
Same registry, different amounts of guesswork. .tattoo is unmistakable and costs more. .ink is shorter, cheaper and covers more ground, at the price of a visitor occasionally arriving expecting a printers.
Take .tattoo if the whole business is tattooing and the address will be read by people searching for exactly that. Take .ink if you also sell flash, prints, illustration or merchandise, or if you simply want the shorter address on the card.
| .ink | .tattoo | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Tattoo, print or writing | Tattoo only |
| Length after the dot | Three characters | Six characters |
| Annual cost | Lower | Around a third more |
| Registry | Registry Services, GoDaddy Registry | Registry Services, GoDaddy Registry |
| In the root zone since | 2014 | 2013 |
.ink domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .ink domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registry positions it across writing, illustration, calligraphy, printing and tattooing, and there is no eligibility test in any direction. That breadth is the appeal and the catch: a reader arriving at a .ink address does not know which of those trades to expect until the page loads. The word in front of the dot is what removes the doubt.
Pick .tattoo if tattooing is the whole business, and .ink if it is not. Both come from the same registry, so there is no difference in how they behave. .tattoo says the thing without a reader having to work it out, which matters when somebody is searching for a studio in their town. .ink is shorter and cheaper, and suits an artist who also sells prints, flash or merchandise.
Registry Services, LLC, which operates as GoDaddy Registry. The extension's old registry site at nic.ink now redirects to GoDaddy Registry's own hub, and the same operator runs .tattoo, .design and .wiki. The ICANN registry contract dates from December 2013 and the extension went live in 2014. There is no TLD-specific registration policy for .ink, which is why it is open to anyone.
Yes, often, and it is the strongest argument against the extension. Spoken quickly the two are indistinguishable, and inc is a word people expect after a business name. If you take bookings by phone or read your address on voicemail, you will end up spelling it every time. Written down the problem disappears, so weigh it by how your customers actually reach you.
Included with Your .ink Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Creative Domains Extensions
Register your .ink domain today
Secure your .ink domain from just £25.49/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
