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. 

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.