Last reviewed: 31 October 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n This notice explains how Skinart Trading (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2019\/195545\/07, handles enquiries and quotes for Skinart Gateway, Skinart Pavilion and Monsta Ink uShaka through our studio inbox. Contact us at studios@skinart.co.za<\/a>. Studio addresses appear on our contact page<\/a>.<\/p>\n When you contact us through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Instagram, we receive the contact or profile details supplied by that platform, your messages and any attachments you send. Our records may include design descriptions, reference photos, size and placement details, quote amounts, artist decisions and message delivery information. We use these records to answer you, prepare and review quotes, arrange your visit and handle service queries.<\/p>\n You choose what to send. Without enough contact or design information, we may be unable to answer your enquiry or estimate a price. Please avoid sending identity numbers, payment-card details or unnecessary sensitive photographs or medical information.<\/p>\n Messages, files saved for an enquiry, quote references and review records are held in Skinart’s studio systems. Access is restricted to approved staff devices and authorised management. Staff-device access uses a persistent login cookie; access and quote-review activity may be recorded for administration and security. Hiding a telephone number on a staff screen does not remove it from the underlying delivery record.<\/p>\n Sending a photo to discuss a tattoo or piercing does not automatically publish it in a portfolio or advert through this inbox.<\/p>\n Where enabled, eligible new customer messages automatically trigger reply drafts for staff review. Staff can also request a reply draft or rough quote. For these drafts and estimates, OpenAI receives the full saved conversation text, including available voice-note transcripts, together with relevant reference photos from that conversation or the saved quote. This helps keep the reply and estimate in context. Software masks detected telephone numbers, email addresses and identity or account numbers in text before sending it. Reference photos are resized and re-encoded with file metadata removed, but personal information visible in the photo can remain. This processing is not complete anonymisation. A customer-supplied first name may also be used for the first greeting of the day. Model-generated drafts remain for staff review; the limited automatic service replies described below use approved business facts.<\/p>\n For a design request, a staff member can explicitly select reference images and choose Generate or Edit. Only those selected images, the staff request and any conversation text explicitly included for that request are sent to OpenAI. Detected identifiers are masked in text; masking does not remove details visible inside a selected image. Other conversations are not included in that design request. Design requests do not retrain model weights. Design versions are kept in the private studio workspace, including versions not sent to a client. Staff must choose Send before an image is sent through the messaging platform.<\/p>\n After a staff reply has been accepted by the messaging provider or confirmed sent or delivered, an edited reply may be analysed to improve future drafts. OpenAI receives the original generated draft, the final staff reply and the redacted text context from that conversation. Images and audio files are not included in this learning step. Queued, failed or unconfirmed sends do not qualify.<\/p>\n Recorded conversational preferences can be applied within their conversation or studio scope. Broader style changes need management review. Prices, promotions, financial commitments and company policies are not changed automatically; they require management review and an explicit update to approved studio knowledge. Records can include redacted before-and-after excerpts and source-message or studio-device references. Management can review, undo or revoke recorded preferences. This stores preferences and proposals, rather than retraining model weights.<\/p>\n Incoming WhatsApp voice notes and other supported audio are stored privately in the studio inbox so authorised staff can play them. Supported recordings are sent to OpenAI for automatic transcription, subject to file and daily limits. This sends the recording itself, which may include personal information. Staff can review the written transcript alongside the audio. Transcripts may contain recognition errors. When transcript text is used to draft a reply or quote, detected telephone numbers, email addresses and identity or account numbers are masked before that text is sent to the drafting model.<\/p>\n Staff review nuanced replies and new estimates. A bounded automatic handler may answer initial greetings and simple studio-location, regular-hours, business-phone or walk-in questions from approved facts within WhatsApp’s customer-service window. It does not automatically quote prices or make medical, payment, refund or appointment decisions. Where permitted, staff can queue a follow-up outside that window and request permission to send it. Only the Yes button on that specific request releases the exact queued staff message; No declines it, and silence does not grant permission. Staff can cancel before sending starts. New tattoo estimates remain provisional until an artist accepts or adjusts their scope and amount. Tell us if you would prefer your enquiry to be handled without AI assistance.<\/p>\n Staff may submit genuine tattoo photographs for an artist portfolio only where permission to publish has been recorded. Approved-for-use photographs may be added automatically to the artist website portfolio and the studio Google Business photo collections. Sending a photograph for an enquiry does not, by itself, grant this publication permission. Facebook and Instagram posts require the owner\u2019s separate approval.<\/p>\n For a portfolio submission, the selected photograph and any optional story or post suggestion may be sent to OpenAI to prepare a caption. Software masks detected contact and identity-number patterns in the text and removes image-file metadata; information visible inside a photograph can remain. This is not complete anonymisation. Procedure medical answers and signatures are not included in this caption request. Photo preparation uses conservative photographic adjustments that preserve the genuine tattoo design.<\/p>\n The owner receives a private review containing the photograph, drafted caption and expiring approval or removal links. Publication and review records identify the selected artist, studio device, permission basis and provider result. Contact us to withdraw publication permission or request removal; removing a website item does not itself confirm deletion of a social post already published by a platform.<\/p>\n Meta provides the messaging platforms. Hosting providers support our studio systems, and OpenAI processes the conversation text, reference photos, selected design images and supported WhatsApp audio described above for drafting, estimates, design and transcription. These providers may process information outside South Africa, and their own platform notices also apply. Deleting a conversation in your own app does not necessarily delete our copy or the platform provider’s records.<\/p>\n The time records are kept depends on your enquiry, service history and relevant administrative or legal requirements. Contact us about the information we hold or to request deletion; information still required for a lawful purpose may need to be retained.<\/p>\nWho we are<\/h2>\n
Information used for your enquiry<\/h2>\n
Studio records and access<\/h2>\n
AI-assisted replies, estimates and designs<\/h2>\n
Staff reply improvements<\/h3>\n
Voice notes<\/h3>\n
Artist portfolios and publication reviews<\/h2>\n
Service providers and retention<\/h2>\n
Your choices and privacy requests<\/h2>\n