Getting into tattooing can be a very intimidating thing! Seeing all of the different things you have to buy and learn about could make you want to cut corners and not do it the right way. PLEASE make sure to get a mentor and don’t just start tattooing friends without any guidance.
Video Transcript:
Hello everyone today, I will be talking to you about the things that you will need in order to start tattooing now it is very important. It is very important, very important if you are not in an apprenticeship or working in a licensed tattoo shop. You should not go out and buy these things and bring them to your house and tattoo your friends. This video is for people that are pursuing an apprenticeship or for people that are doing research and looking into what they would need to do in order to start tattooing. This video is not for people that want to tattoo out of their house.
This is not a shopping list for you to go to take to ebay and buy all the cheapest equipment that you can find. So you can tattoo in your home. Tattooing is a medical procedure. You are injecting things into people’s bodies. People can get infections, you can spread disease from client to client.
So please pursue an apprenticeship if you are serious about tattooing. So now all these things I’m gon na, go through our just the essentials of what you would need in order to start tattooing. First of all, safety is first, you are going to need gloves some type of sanitary way. This is optin. This is a medical grade, disinfect that you do not want to use alcohol or green soap to wipe down and sterilize your equipment, because that is not actually doing anything but wiping disease around if you’re, wiping everything down with alcohol so use medical grade disinfectants like cab Aside, mat aside Optim one there’s a million of them on market.
You really need to look at what the kill times are when shopping for these products in order to properly clean your surfaces so for optimum, the maximum kill times is one minute, so I have to make sure that all of my surfaces are wet for a minimum Of one minute, in order for that cleaner to do its job, if you use one wipe for your entire station and everything just kind of stays wet for like 20 seconds, it’s not actually killing all the different things that it claims to kill. Because you didn’t keep your equipment wet for long enough, so make sure to read the kill times and understand how to properly use medical disinfectants. So you are not spreading disease to your clients or yourself, don’t wait one. Second, I have this shirt for sale. The link for it is down in the description and a couple weeks I will be launching my clothing brand boundless once the website is launched.
I will link it down below in the description, so you should go check that out back to the video dental biz. These are really nice to put on your tray when you are setting up for your tattoo. If you accidentally spill an ink up or a rinse cup, it’s just not gon na where it will absorb up into this and underneath your dental bills, you should have saran wrap. You can get larger rolls of this, so you can wrap your beds once again. Safety comes first one tattooing, so making sure that you have all the proper barriers to cover your equipment is really important.
Sandwich bags sandwich bags are real easy to use. All you have to do is slip it over your power supply. So on that way, your power supply, or even your green soap bottle, are covered petroleum, jelly and tongue depressors to get petroleum jelly out of the jar. So this is basically use you put it on the skin in order to lubricate the needle going in and out of the skin. It helps reduce trauma and there are a lot of different options.
Besides, just petroleum jelly, I have not done enough research on all those other products, so I continue to use this. I would like to switch over to a more natural option. Besides that, though soon you will need rinse cup now, this is a very small rinse cup. I didn’t have any big ones to show you usually I have bigger ones than this. I don’t know why I just have small ones today.
Spray bottle for your green, so now using a bottle like this is a Nalgene bottle is important because if you use a spray bottle that mist that the spray bottles create could pick up germs or blood particles and have them fly away. And now your blood-borne pathogen is now airborne, so using these types of bottles is important. You will need tape basically to tape your client down, because they are going to be screaming in pain in caps and razor blades and dedicated containers for them to live in paper. Towels, alcohol to clean the skin and a dedicated spray bottle for that alcohol. This alcohol is not to be used on anything besides the clients skin do not try to disinfect your station with this.
It will not kill certain blood-borne pathogens, you’ll just end up wiping and spreading them around clip cord sleeve. If I’m able to I try to use the clipboard sleeve to cover my machine and the RCA cord, just so it’s less bagging that I have to do if you’re, using a coil machine or a bulkier machine, you’re gon na have to use a machine bag and Not one of these, but if you’re using a smaller rotary you’ll, be able to slide this over your RCA and your machine. Also, now to the more exciting stuff you will need needles. Now I do not use standard needles that I use cartridges. You know to other brands that I use t Tech and good guys have to supply.
I made a video about cartridges and which ones that I found are the best. I will link that above there are a ton of brands out there there’s a lot of junk and there are a lot of good quality ones. You just have to find them, so you never want to go cheap with needles machines inks. You could cut corners when it comes to like clip cord sleeves or like getting the bargain plastic baggies, but never ever cut when it comes to actual equipment that you’re gon na be using on your client, disposable, cartridge tubes. If you’re not using an autoclave, you should be using disposables, I like to use disposables because they are easier to clean up when you’re done with your tattoo.
You just throw them away. You’Re gon na need some type of black ink. I use big sleek Ellerbee black. I find it to be my favorite at the moment. I did make a video all about black inks.
I will link that above, but I have found that this has worked the best for me, I’m all the blacks that I’ve used so far. You will need color. Some people don’t use colors and they just use black and gray. But if you do color, you need a ton of them, they are expensive and this is just a small collection. Stancel stuff.
You need it to put your stencils on now. The shop that you are working at should provide the stencil paper and the stencil machine for you to use all you have to bring. Is the stencil stuff normally a bottle for water, for you to dilute your gray? Washes a power supply in an RCA cord or a clip cord, depending on what kind of machine you’re using this is the critical Adam X I’ve been using it for about two years. I do like it.
I do have some issues with it, but overall it is definitely paid for itself. I like this power supply and this is an RCA cable from FK irons. I have bought a lot of crappy RCA cables and learned my lesson in the past. A lot of them will Bend right here and end up kind of like disconnecting and shorting out. There are so many tattoo machines to choose from, and it is really difficult to pick out a machine when you first start out looking at all the different specs can be very intimidating.
I’M not gon na go over what all those different specs mean on different machines. If you would like to see a video about that, let me know down in the comments, but what I will say when picking out a machine do not go cheap, do not go cheap. A lot of people make this mistake when they’re first starting out tattooing, they’ll search the internet for a deal and they’ll find one and they’ll be on their third tattoo, and the tattoo machine will break down on now. That is why you should not buy a cheap machine. I’Ve seen a lot of people comment on my videos in the past, where I’m recommending expensive tattoo machines.
Now these people are very obviously not in the tattoo industry, but they say a tattoo machines, a tattoo machine tattoos. Yes, it can tattoo, but there’s a lot that goes into making a machine, the motors and the way that they run so buying a cheap Chinese. Knockoff of a machine – that’s originally like six hundred and fifty bucks that machine is not gon na run the same as the original, so don’t be cheap, invest in your craft and buy a quality machine. This machine is that axis bahala I’ve been using this for a little bit over a year. I think be the way I have machine for hours on end and it has not disappointed it’s the most versatile machine that I have ever used.
I highly recommend it to anybody. Nobody paid me to say that either. This is just my honest opinion. This machine is about 650 bucks, but it does pay for itself very quickly. Now, if you’re on a little bit more of a budget axis rotaries direct drive, is a really good option.
I think this one’s around $ 350, which is really cheap for a tattoo machine. I also have here the Bishop Magi. This is number one thousand five hundred and eighty three out of four thousand limited edition. I don’t know how much these are. I forget, but either way I do recommend having more than one tattoo machine just in case one breaks down in the middle of the tattoo.
At first you’ll, just probably get one, maybe two, but eventually it will become a sickness that will consume your mind, body and soul, and you will want to buy all the tattoo machines that come out, and this is okay. We all go through it just reach out. If you need help now next, you will need in our breasts this one. I got on Amazon. I think it was like 175 dollars or something like that.
There’S a really good medic instruction, it’s heavy and it doesn’t move while I’m tattooing people – and that is important. Also, you will need a dental tray to put all your inks and machines on while you’re tattooing – I’m not gon na drag them over here, but you will need a dedicated trash can and sharps container for your needles and your trash. You also will need a tattooing bed, which is basically a massage table covered in plastic, and I’m not going to pick this up because I have all this equipment on it and it’s probably gon na all fall. But I did make a video on how to wrap your tattoo table and customize it with fabric that you like, and also be able to wrap it in plastic. So I’ll link that above so you can check it out.
You’Ll also need a stool. This one has Darth Vader on it and like behind me, I have a tool bench to house all your different equipments. Now the reason you have a tool bench and a dental tray, because the dental tray is just for the things you’re using for that client. Your tool bench is for all of your different equipment, so you do not cross contaminate so yeah. Those are all the musts and necessities of tattooing.
But, like I said earlier, please get an apprenticeship, don’t just buy all these things and tattoo in your kitchen. You don’t want your friend’s leg to fall off, please respect the craft of tattooing and do it the right way. So, yes, if you have any questions, comment them down below, I will try my very best to answer them. I hope that you have a good day.
