Straight Up: Where NOT To Buy

I spend a lot of time cracking on tattoo wholesalers and discounters with good reason. They suck and they're almost all guilty of distributing counterfeit goods. If they aren't selling counterfeit inks or knock-off machines, they're raping the general populous by marking their products up 1000% and selling them as something more than mere novelties.

Beginners, this is for you. My frustration when starting out inspired me to do hours upon hours of research. Nobody has an endless supply of money to spend on hobbies and hopeful careers. Why waste one cent on trash? You shouldn't. Here we go.

CAST - IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

www.STARTERTATTOOKIT.com
They sell starter kits for $99. The kits include counterfeit Danny Fowler G-Series machines. Authentic Fowler machines sell for almost three times the cost of the entire kit, that's how you know they're fake. They include 15 1/2 oz bottles of counterfeit "Kuro Sumi" colors. At the LEAST Kuro Sumi Colors 1/2oz bottles cost $4.70 if you buy them in a set. $4.70 multiplied by 15 is $70.50. That's 71% of the cost of the kit. How can the company afford to give you four machines, a bunch of extra bullshit and a case if they're not selling fakes? They can't. Next.

www.ACCESSTATTOO.com
They sell "tattoo guns". Their kits include cheap stamped & bend machine frames from China and no-name ink. What's wrong with that? Well, nothing, if you don't mind pumping unregulated, untested, unsafe garbage into everyone you "tattoo". Guilty!

www.THELASHOP.com
They sell electronics, clothing, health and beauty supplies. Why the fuck shouldn't you trust them? Because your money is worth more than anything they can offer you. Move on.

www.SAFERWHOLESALE.com
Safer than what? Licking the floor of a brothel in Liberia? Maybe. They sell more of the same garbage as the other sites including counterfeit machines and counterfeit inks and they overcharge you for all of it. How do you know you're being overcharged? Because you're paying money for things that are worth NOTHING. Next.

www.BUY.com
While you're buying no-brand golf course GPS computers, camera cases and fake leather belts, why not throw a tattoo kit in your cart? You get 2 guns for only $99! Have you noticed a pattern yet? I'm pro-second amendment but I am ANTI-GUN. Pass this offer up. You'll never regret not buying from them.

www.ONLINETATTOOWHOLESALE.com
Another one. More Chinese machines. More counterfeit ink from the Philippines. More knock-off machines. More of your money wasted.

www.MONSTERSTEEL.com
They offer "hand made" machines. The machines aren't hand made. They're stamped and bent or cast out of the lowest quality magnetic metal available. Assembled by hand doesn't mean handmade. With prices around $50 per machine getting ripped off was never so cheap.

www.TMART.com
Don't do it. Don't you dare do it. Counterfeit Kuro-Sumi says it all.

www.ULTIMATETATTOOKITS.com
More Danny Fowler ripoffs and fucked off generic ink. How is this shit legal? Maybe if these companies didn't have your dollars to pay for lawyers or to buy their merchandise from overseas it wouldn't be.

At this point I need to dispense with the descriptions and assume that two or more of the following is true for the remainder of the websites listed. 1.) They sell fake ink. 2.) They sell Chinese machines. 3.)They sell Mickey Sharpz or Danny Fowler ripoffs. 4.) Your money is better spent elsewhere. Let's continue.

www.TATTOO.TIDEBUY.com

www.LIGHTINTHEBOX.com

www.SUNTEKSTORE.com

www.LUCKY7TATTOOEQUIPMENT.com

www.EACHTATTOO.com

www.QUALITYTATTOOSUPPLIERS.com

www.TATTOOKITS.com

These motherfuckers sell a straight up rip-off of a kit off Superior's site and even use their photo. 

www.TATTOODIY.com

www.PROTATTOODEPOT.com

www.NEWTATTOOKITS.com

www.BESTTATTOOKIT.com

www.DHGATE.com

www.TATTOOKITSWORLDWIDE.com

www.WHOLESALETATTOOKITS.com

www.TATTOOSKITS.com

www.PROTATTOOSALE.com

www.IOFFER.com

www.DINODIRECT.com

www.TATTOOMACHINESALES.com

www.GADGETTOWN.com

www.CHEAPTATTOOKITS.net

www.TATTOOKITS.co

www.TATTOO-SET.com

www.TATTOOSUPPLYHOUSE.com

www.TATTOO-KIT.net

www.TRADE-TANG.net

www.TATTOOKITWAREHOUSE.com

www.TATTOOKITSCHEAP.com

www.IDEALHERE.com

www.TATTOO-MANUFACTURER.com

www.TOXICTWIT.com

www.PR-INSIDE.com

www.TATTOOKITSNOW.com

www.EDMWI.com

www.CHEAPTATTOO.com

www.PIERCINGSANDTATTOOS.com

www.HOTFROG.com

www.FASHIONEZ.com


Dare I mention eBay and Amazon? 

If you're checking the sites I just listed against your Google search results, congratulations, you made it to page 10. The bad news is you just saw a whole bunch of people making a whole bunch of money of uneducated people and legitimate manufacturer's patented formulas and designs. The good news is, everything past here is garbage and you can turn back and find something good. If you still don't know where is OK to buy (where you won't be better off rolling your money up and shoving it in your pee-hole) take a look to the right of this very page under "Tattoo Supply". There are a lot of legit sellers there. Protect yourself from being taken advantage of. Don't buy cheap crap. Don't perpetuate the counterfeiters scheme of selling cheap garbage at inflated prices and using YOUR dollars to manufacture MORE cheap garbage to sell to the next person. Don't try to find a bargain. 

The best bargain is not buying cheap shit. Seriously. 

Tattoo Kits: Best Deals

Jesus. Tattoo kits. Where to start? The easiest thing would be to just say, "don't do it". There's infinite potential to get ripped off. There are [literally] hundreds of tattoo supply houses online and not all of them are on the up-and-up. Personally, you can't trust a kit. If you want everything to be the way you want it, you have to buy it piece by piece. If you feel like you just need SOMETHING...fine. Do it. Realistically the majority of kit manufacturers and resellers are shady, low-quality nameless shops with no recourse if something happens and you end up getting ripped off. From eBay to Amazon to page 50 of a Google search, you'll find absolute garbage on almost every page. So, how do you tell what's good and what's utter shite? Here's the BASICS.

Online discount tattoo supply sites (A.K.A. Scab Vendor Headquarters) offer one kind of tattoo kit. There might be hundreds of variations to choose from, but they're essentially the same thing. Machines, power supplies, inks, needles and a bunch of extras like machine lights, practice skins, ink holders, etc. Usually in excessive quantities. But this isn't what you need. If you find an "8-Gun" kit online with 40 inks and 100 needles, and the price is around $200, skip it. The ink is fake and according to one study could be contaminated. The needles are garbage and WILL hamburger your skin and everyone else's. The machines are rubbish. They're cheap, they're foreign, they're marked-up, they're unreliable and made of inferior parts and materials. Check out TATTOOTRAINING's video on YouTube for in-depth coverage on these pieces of shit.

The first thing to look at is the wording. No legitimate supply house sells "tattoo guns". "Tattoo Guns" exist in the kitchens of single-wide mobile-homes, gutterpunk squat houses, cells in state penitentiaries and in junkie shooting galleries. Legit suppliers will always call their tattoo machines just that, tattoo machines. But this DOES NOT IN ANY WAY GUARANTEE THAT THE SELLER IS LEGITIMATE. This is a point of major contention in the field of tattoo making as well as machine building. If you are an inexperienced, unlicensed scratcher you can start your road to a legitimate career by stopping what you're doing right now, getting an apprenticeship, being in total compliance with all the legislature in your state and by never, ever calling a tattoo machine a gun again. Ever. Period.

Secondly, the number or machines included in a kit DOES NOT speak for its quality. Tattoo kits with machines in excess of two should generally be passed over. The machines included in wholesale kits are without exception cheap, having only cost a dollar or two to manufacture. Because they are so cheap wholesalers can afford to add three, four, six, eight of them to a tattoo kit without impacting their profit margin. This is why you find tattoo kits with 8 machines for $200. The reason WHY you get so many machines is not because it's a good deal and the seller wants you to succeed. It's because they KNOW the machines will not last and they do not want you to complain to them when they stop functioning in a week or two, so they give you several additional machines to keep you going. This is how cheap gear will last longer. Not through quality, but through quantity. Aside from the machines being cheap garbage and the hallmark of amateurs everywhere, what's the big deal about a cheap tattoo machine? Well, you never get a chance to get used to it. Even if you manage to tune it correctly, which you probably won't since you bought 8, it will not last. Wires will heat and break in the coils, the wiring will ground or your cheap power supply will shit the bed and you'll be done. If your power supply doesn't give out, the machine will and you'll be on to the next one, never getting a chance to learn your machine. There are a lot of things which are consumables. Ink caps, bibs, tongue depressors, needles, etc. Machines shouldn't be one of the consumables in your budget. The BIGGEST deal about these cheap kit machines however, is this: the people that manufacture the crazy-colored, decorative novelty skeleton-raping-jesus-gun-penis-dead-baby-head styled machines also manufacture counterfeit machines, ripoffs of Danny Fowler's hard work, TTS ripoffs, etc. Every major brand has been duplicated and when you buy this cheap shit you're supporting people that undermine the trade and the key players. Don't do it.

The inks is another thing. I've talked about this before. You can guarantee with 99.99% certainty that all inks in big kits are fake. How can you tell? Well, you can start by reading my article "How To Spot Fake Kuro Sumi". Another thing to look at is the overall price of the kit. If you are getting 8 machines and 20 inks for $200, the machines are shit and the ink is fake. Here's why. Good inks, Alla Prima, Ichiban, Talen's, Waverly, etc. are at the VERY LEAST $7.50 PER OUNCE. Some quality inks are that much per 1/2 ounce, but that is the lowest price I have found legit ink at. $7.50 multiplied by 20 is $150.00. That would turn your $200 kit into a $350 kit right out of the gates. So watch out. No quality ink manufacturer is going to let their product go for less than what it's worth. And no wholesaler is going to pay a minimum price for something and then undersell themselves to save you money. It's not going to happen. Ever. So, are you still searching for a kit to buy?

That's unfortunate.

As much as you want to, as much as I wanted to when I started, you're just not going to get a good deal by shopping at cheap supply houses. You're going to be disappointed at the very least and on a more serious note in danger of using contaminated products. On the upside you'll have a whole bunch of cool keychains.

If it's quality gear you seek and you're licensed, please don't fuck off...please visit one of the links to the right. 

Discount Tattoo Supplies Online: Buyer Beware.

Anyone searching for tattoo supplies has at some point come across discounted kits that are priced so low you can't not buy them.

The problem with this is that they are inexpensive for a reason. Cheap machines, low quality components, sub-standard needles and fake inks all drive down the costs of production allowing wholesalers and discounters to make a profit even with prices 70% lower than quality products.

Essentially a tattoo machine is always going to be a tattoo machine. Anything with at least one coil or rotor, an armature bar and vice will perform as it should. With cheap machines performance is really left open to interpretation and many details that make a difference in quality are overlooked. It's common for discount companies to offer machines made with cheap frames and cheap coils. Again, these parts are cheap for a reason. Mass produced parts and non precision construction are two things all cheap machines have in common. A good machine will have straight, tightly wrapped coils and proper frame angles and measurements. On one machine I purchased to check out the coil posts were so crooked that the armature bar only made about 40% contact with the front coil. This is a loss of machine efficiency by at least 60% assuming there are no other problems. If you buy ten machines for $20 a piece, even if you're lucky enough to find a perfect one it still won't perform as well as a properly made $200 machine.

But the machines are the least problematic aspect of a discount kit.

Another area discounters cut corners is in their needles. Pricing for needles is already low. Aside from gloves, caps, bands and machine and cord covers your needles are the least expensive pieces per unit for a tattoo procedure. How discounters acquire cheap needles is simple. They contact manufacturers and offer to buy their seconds needles. Seconds are needles that did not meet quality standards for any number of reasons. This could be that the groupings are slightly crooked on the bar, that the points are blunted or even that the needle didn't pass sterilization in blister packing. The companies agree to sell these seconds needles to discounters leaving it up to them to use their discretion about which needles to sell. Usually, they sell all of them. In one box of such needles I noted that out of 100 needles 36 (seriously) of them had needle groupings with blunted points and five were visibly misaligned on the bar. That is a 59% usability rate if there are not other problems. The needles are then put into a kit and (usually) shipped from China, a journey that will subject them to hot, cold, jostling and possible further damage.

The ink used in discount kits is almost always a counterfeit name brand or a very poor quality house brand. These inks aren't sterile and a study done by ERMA in New Zealand revealed that discount inks from China were contaminated with lead. That article is included below.

Tattoo Ink Potentially Contaminated - NZ Herald

To make you think you're getting a great deal they'll throw in a whole bunch of other stuff like practice skins, machine holders, cap holders, clip on lights and so on. You can guarantee those are inferior products as well.

In short, discounters don't care about you or who you're tattooing they of care about money and they'll give you low quality supplies to increase their profit margin.

It is far better to spend extra money on quality goods than to cut corners. If price is an issue keep in mind that you do not need ten machines and all the other stuff included in those discount "pro" kits. You need two machines, a power supply, a good switch and clip cord and the other obvious stuff like ink and caps and needles. Every legit tattoo supply house in America offers a kit with everything you need at a reasonable price. I've taken the guess work out of finding legit supply spots and produced a list of well known sellers to check out. Just look to the right of this page.

If you're after cheap supplies, keep in mind that everything cheap is cheap for a reason.