Website Hosting

The Hosting page in the Account Portal is your dashboard for managing your live website. From here you can publish your site, set up your domain, manage DNS records, and configure email forwarding.

Access it at account.tattoostudiopro.com/hosting. If you subscribe to Tattoo Studio Pro and have not set up a website yet, this is also where you claim the one included with your subscription.

Included With Your Subscription

If you subscribe to Tattoo Studio Pro, a website is part of what you already pay for. You don’t need a separate hosting plan.

To claim it:

1. Sign in at account.tattoostudiopro.com and open the Hosting page.
2. Find “Your website is included” and click Claim my website.
3. Click Open the builder, design your site, then click Publish when you’re ready.

Two things worth knowing:

• Only the studio owner can claim it. If you manage a studio you don’t own, ask the owner to claim it.
• Your site stays live while your subscription is active. If your subscription ends, the site goes offline. Resubscribe and it comes back with your content intact.

On the Hosting page and the Subscriptions page, the paid hosting pricing card ($10/month or $100/year) shows as Included in your subscription and is locked. You don’t buy it separately. Once you’ve claimed your website, the Website Hosting card on the Subscriptions page carries the same Included in your subscription badge, and there’s no Manage Billing button since there’s nothing to bill.

Custom domains, DNS management, and email forwarding all work the same on your included website as described below.

What Is Included in Hosting

Every hosting plan includes:

• SSL certificate - Automatic HTTPS for your domain, provisioned at no extra cost
• Global CDN - Your site is served from data centers around the world for fast load times everywhere
• DDoS protection - Built-in protection against common web attacks
• portfolio.ink subdomain - A free subdomain like yourstudio.portfolio.ink included with every plan
• Custom domain - Connect your own domain name
• DNS management - Manage DNS records for your domain
• Email forwarding - Set up a professional email address that forwards to your inbox

Publishing Your Site

To get your site live, publish it from within the template or portfolio editor:

1. Open your template customizer or portfolio editor
2. Make sure your content and design are ready
3. Click the Publish button in the editor
4. Your site deploys immediately

After publishing, your site is accessible at your portfolio.ink subdomain (and your custom domain if you have configured one). Every time you make changes in the editor and want them to go live, click Publish again. Publishing replaces the previous version.

Your portfolio.ink Subdomain

When you first publish, a subdomain like yourstudio.portfolio.ink is assigned automatically. You can change it to something better at any time from the Hosting page.

To change your subdomain:

1. Go to the Hosting page
2. Find the Subdomain section
3. Enter your preferred name
4. Click Save

The subdomain changes immediately. Any old subdomain URL stops working, so update any links or bookmarks you may have shared.

Connecting a Custom Domain

To use your own domain name (like yourstudio.com) instead of the default subdomain:

1. Go to the Hosting page and find the Custom Domain section
2. Enter your domain name and click Save
3. Review the records we found on your domain (see below), then click Copy these records and continue
4. The page shows you the nameservers to set at your domain registrar
5. Log in to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.) and update the nameservers to the values shown
6. Return to the Hosting page and click Check Status to verify the connection

DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to fully propagate. SSL is provisioned automatically once your domain is active. You don’t need to do anything extra to enable HTTPS.

Keeping your email working

When you switch nameservers, every record on your domain gets replaced, not just the ones for your website. If your studio’s email runs on this domain (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or your old host’s email), the records that deliver it need to come across first. Otherwise mail stops arriving and nobody gets a bounce to warn you.

So before we show you the nameservers, we check your domain and list what we find, with email records at the top:

• Everything is checked by default. Leave a record checked unless you know you don’t need it.
• Missing something? Click Missing something? Add it here. to add a record we didn’t find. Your email provider’s setup page lists the records it needs.
• If we couldn’t finish checking, you’ll see a message asking you to try again in a minute. If you don’t use email at this domain, tick I don’t use email at this domain to continue.

Once you continue, the records you kept are copied to your new DNS, so your email keeps working through the switch.

DNS Records

Once your domain is connected, the Hosting page shows your DNS records. Some records are system records (marked as locked) that keep your site working. You cannot edit these.

You can add your own records for:

• MX records - If you use a third-party email service (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) and want to receive email at your domain
• TXT records - For domain verification with services like Google Search Console, Mailchimp, or Brevo
• Additional CNAMEs or A records - For subdomains you control

To add a record, scroll to the DNS Records section on the Hosting page, fill in the record type, name, and value, then click Add Record.

Email Forwarding

Email forwarding lets you use a professional email address like info@yourstudio.com without paying for a full email hosting service. Emails sent to your domain address are forwarded automatically to your personal inbox.

To set up email forwarding:

1. Go to the Hosting page
2. Find the Email Forwarding section
3. Enter the address you want to forward from (for example, info@yourstudio.com)
4. Enter the destination email address where forwarded messages should be delivered
5. Click Save

You can set up multiple forwarding addresses if needed. Note that email forwarding delivers incoming messages to your inbox - it does not let you send outgoing email from the domain address. For full send/receive capability, use a service like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 with the MX records option above.

Troubleshooting

I don’t see any nameservers after entering my domain

We show nameservers only after you’ve reviewed your domain’s existing records. Look for Before you switch: keep your email working in the Custom Domain section, review the list, and click Copy these records and continue.

My email stopped working after I switched nameservers

A record your email needs didn’t come across. Your email provider’s setup page lists the records it needs (usually MX records, plus TXT records for SPF, DKIM and DMARC). Add any missing ones in the DNS Records section of the Hosting page. If you’re not sure what’s missing, contact support and we’ll help you sort it out.

My domain is stuck on “Pending” after updating nameservers

DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours. This is a normal part of how DNS works worldwide - changes have to propagate across many servers. Use the Check Status button to re-check periodically. If it has been more than 48 hours, verify that you updated the nameservers (not just added a CNAME) at your registrar.

My domain is active but I see an SSL warning in the browser

SSL is provisioned automatically after your domain activates. It may take a few minutes after activation to kick in. If you are still seeing an SSL error after 30 minutes, contact support.

My site is not loading after publishing

First, check that your domain status shows as Active on the Hosting page. If you are using the portfolio.ink subdomain and it is not loading, wait a minute or two for the deploy to propagate globally. If the problem persists, try publishing again from the editor.

Email forwarding is not working

For email forwarding to work, your domain needs to be active and connected. Check that the domain status is Active on the Hosting page. Also verify that you have not set conflicting MX records in the DNS Records section - custom MX records for a third-party email service can interfere with forwarding.

I changed my subdomain but my old link still works for a while

Old subdomains may continue to resolve briefly while DNS caches clear. This is temporary. The old URL will stop working within a short time after the change.