r/TattooArtists

Recently been running into a lot of problems with my Bishop wand and am in the market for a new rotary machine. Does anyone have any opinions on this rotary? If not any recommendations in general?

I'm looking at getting one of those Bluetooth stencil printers but I really don't want to have to waste whole sheets on small tattoos. Can anyone tell me if they own one that has an option to print off a roll and only print the amount of paper needed for the design?

What do you all recommend for powder pigment colors? Looking to buy from independent tattooer owned company.

My close friend (28F) suffered cardiac arrest in her sleep after a bout of food poisoning 2 days ago. No prior known conditions. They say it was from an electrolyte imbalance.

Currently in a coma, fully on life support, it will take a miracle for her to pull through.

Obviously seeing your friend in critical condition is jarring enough, but seeing the tattoos I’ve done on her is killing me, it feels gut wrenching, chilling.

There were a couple we were going to do some minor touch up’s on so I never took healed pics, even the most recent one I said “that healed great, I’ll take a good pic when we hang next” and that was on Saturday.

You see your work on people every day, alive and well, and while you know it’s special to have someone carry your work on them forever, seeing them in possibly their final days with your work is just… god it’s absolutely insane.

You think your work will age with them, they’ll grow old, you know they take it to the grave, but this really put life into perspective.

Life is short. Hugs your friends and family extra tight and be grateful for being able to put your work on people. Always make it your best. Never thought my friend’s birthday tattoo would possibly be the last one.

okay, so to start this off im 18f and i started my apprenticeship in january. my first red flag should’ve been the fact that i had to pay five THOUSAND dollars for my apprenticeship, but i was just out of highschool, trying to get my foot in the door. they wanted me there for five days a week, 8 hours a day, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

it started off as basic stuff, they would only let me clean, which was expected. now that im three months in, I’ve started working on fake skin, maybe have been at it for 2-3 weeks. I was told earlier by my “mentor” ( who honestly doesn’t teach me much of anything ) that my managers told her to tell me that im now allowed on fake skin anymore, or allowed to draw in the studio, because the owner had noticed dust bunnies. maybe im just being dramatic, but it feels very strange to me that they’re sending me back to the beginning/essentially restarting my apprenticeship because of this. especially because I paid 5k. my managers also never told me about these concerns until today.

another thing I should mention is that there are two other apprentices at the shop, who are both tattooing by this point, but not getting paid from any tattoos that they’re doing. only getting paid from tips. there definitely shouldn’t be three of us to begin with, but they actually have punished the other apprentices to the point of making them clean out managers houses, cars, etc. they are extremely exploitive and clearly only care about money/free labour. I do ALL the work for them, which i understand is part of the apprenticeship, but have to deal with a huge amount of disrespect. I have a few other friends who are apprentices at other places who have told me they think I am getting taken advantage of.

any input/advice? I know apprenticeships can be difficult but this shop seems extremely corrupt and everyone I’ve talked to has said the same. but all my coworkers just say “we’ve all been there” etc.

I’ve been experimenting with a Dan Kubin v3/24 and just recently got the Full Monty. I’ve used these cartridges for both machines:

Cheyenne 13rl

Metal fingers 1003-1207RL

Bishop 1205-1207

Unicorn horn straight liners 1205-1207

Peak Traditional 9RL

I’ve also used on bar, of course it’s way better than the cartridges.

But I am curious to see if anyone has their preferred cartridges for these machines? If so let me know why? Currently debating on doing a full switch-a-roo to on bar for these machines.

Currently would like to further experiment and make the full Monty my go-to for everything like I have been doing for the bishop packer. I do a lot of black and grey fine line stipple work, bold traditional and color work. All of which I have been doing with the packer before getting these machines.

I’ve found for my bishop packer I really like metal fingers for almost everything. And of course for the Kubin machines my opinion is different.

I’ve previously used kwadron, blackwork, regular peak liners, triton and envy for the packer and don’t really like most of their cartridges.

Mostly just curious to hear opinions and thoughts. I enjoy keeping track of how different things work

Hi, friends. After a lot of support in getting my own studio, I took the jump and I’m doing the dang thing. I’ve got mostly everything else figured out, but I’m not sure what the approved method of disposing my sharps containers would be?

Every shop I’ve worked at has had a service to come pick up a ton every so often, but if it’s just myself now I could drop them off somewhere.

If you’ve got your own studio, what do you do to dispose of your sharps? If you have a service, how expensive is it? And am I silly for thinking I can take them somewhere myself like you would with other disposables that need to go to a specific place?

I’ve worked several conventions in town but I’m about to fly in for one, and I’m trying to figure out logistics on how to bring larger equipment (I’ve already got a massage bed and armbar rented for when I get there). My main concern is my set up.

Normally my set up is on a wheely tray, but I obviously can’t fly with that, and AFAIK the convention is only giving us those big long tables for the booth (no small tables for our set up).

What do folks put their set up on at conventions where you can’t bring all your normal equipment? Is there some kind of collapsible tray/table situation that is easy to fly with? I’ve looked at everything from building my own folding tray to foldable camping tables (they’re either too big or too short), but can’t seem to find anything that would work.

Anything advice (or general tips when flying in for a convention) would be appreciated!

I’ve been tattooing a few years now, and I also handle a lot of the booking/scheduling stuff at the shop. We take deposits upfront for online bookings so people don’t just ghost. Right now it’s pretty simple—clients just Venmo me, and I tell them straight up it’s non-refundable.

Had a thought today—might be dumb, might not—but I started thinking through how it’d actually work:

What if there was a simple tool that did all of this in one shot when someone wants to book a session ahead of time:

We send the client a link.
They open it and it’s basically:

A deposit agreement
– Shows their appointment time, total price, and deposit
– Clearly says it’s non-refundable (we’ve had people argue after no-shows)
– They just type their name and sign it

Then they pay right there—like there is a built-in payment set-up (Venmo, Zelle, Stripe, Square, whatever). After they pay, it kicks them back to finish signing if needed. Deposit done.

Right after that:

Liability waiver
– Same one they’d normally sign in the shop
– They fill it out and sign it right there after they signed the deposit/booking contract

Then everything—deposit agreement, waiver, payment—just gets sent back to our main system and saved so we’ve got it if anything ever comes up.

Anyway, that’s it. Just thinking out loud from the shop side. Curious if this sounds useful or if I’m overthinking something that’s already “good enough.” Maybe you already have something like this--like when people book an appointment online they are required to make a down-payment at the same time within that booking system? If so, what is it called? Thanks!