Transparency

Data transparency

Every public record shows where it comes from, when it was last checked and what kind of data it is.

Data types

Fact: Verified against an official or primary source.
Source claim: What a source or the business itself states; not independently verified.
Estimate: A range produced with a published methodology. City expense estimates are archived; trip costs are the amounts you enter.
Inference: Derived by the platform from other records; always labelled.

Freshness

Records carry the date they were last checked. When a record is older than its re-check period it is marked as needing a re-check instead of being presented as current.

Studio pages keep source information (collected by the platform) separate from the studio-managed profile (written by a verified studio).

Sources

Approved sources

BIUBI admin (manual entry)Added by BIUBI
California Health and Safety Code — Safe Body Art Act (HSC §§119300–119328)Source: California Health and Safety Code
City and County of San Francisco — Registered Business LocationsSource: City and County of San Francisco open data
City of Los Angeles Office of Finance — Active Tattoo BusinessesSource: City of Los Angeles Office of Finance open data
City of Seattle — Active Business License Tax CertificatesSource: City of Seattle open data
Community event submissions (moderated)Submitted by a user and checked by an admin against the official link
IANA Time Zone DatabaseTime zones: IANA Time Zone Database
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health — Body Art ProgramSource: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Official event organizer and venue websites (manual verification)Event details from the organizer's or venue's official website
Official studio websites — editorial verificationStudio's official website
San Francisco Department of Public Health — Body Art ProgramSource: San Francisco Department of Public Health
Studio-managedProvided by the studio
U.S. Census Bureau GeocoderGeocoding: U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Census Bureau TIGERwebBoundaries: U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb
U.S. Department of State foreign per diem ratesPer diem rates: U.S. Department of State; converted at ECB reference rates
U.S. GSA per diem rates (FY2027)Per diem rates: U.S. General Services Administration
Washington Administrative Code — Chapter 308-22 WACSource: Washington Administrative Code
Washington State Department of Licensing — Tattoo, Body Art, Body Piercing ProgramSource: Washington State Department of Licensing
WikidataReference data: Wikidata (CC0)

See the methodology for how published numbers are produced.