What's the best way to learn how to tattoo? Here's what you'll need.

Tattooing is not only a way to satisfy your creative and artistic needs. It is also a great business idea. A good tattoo artist has no problem finding clients, and their number is growing year by year – it is estimated that even one in ten Poles has a "tattoo", and 1/3 of owners do not stop at just one tattoo. However, before you start tattooing people, you need to perfectly master the technique and develop your own style. Are you wondering what is the best way to learn how to tattoo? We have prepared a list of things you will need to get started.

Machine and accessories

A brief digression here. A tattoo machine is, of course, essential equipment for tattooing, unless you prefer to start your adventure with this art by learning handpoke. This is a completely different technique that does not require a machine – it involves manual tattooing using needles, which guarantees unique effects.

However, we assume that you plan to learn how to tattoo with a machine. Here, a coil machine with classic needles will be a good choice. It is heavy, loud, vibrates strongly, but it is cheap, and once you learn to tattoo with this equipment, later switching to a rotary machine (used by most professionals) will be much easier.

Coil machines and rotary machines can, of course, be bought at Ars Tattoo, and in another article, you will find out which type of machine might be a better choice to start with.

The machine itself is not everything, of course. You also need needles or cartridges. The former fit coil machines, while cartridges are much more convenient to change, which may ultimately convince you to buy a rotary machine.

Inks for learning to tattoo

At the learning stage, when you are not yet tattooing on human skin, you can confidently opt for cheaper tattoo inks without REACH – let's recall that this is a regulation imposing specific quality standards on inks used for tattooing people.

When selecting inks, choose those for outlining, shading, and filling, preferably in different colour variations, to test various techniques and discover which tattooing style suits you best.

Let's also mention useful accessories that help maintain order and cleanliness at the workstation (it's worth developing good habits right away). We are talking about, among other things, ink caps and gloves.

A very nice and convenient option for beginners are also our ready-made tattoo learning kits, in which you will find all the accessories needed to practice the technique on artificial skin.

Artificial skin

This is one of the most important accessories you will need at the stage of learning to tattoo. Artificial skin (synthetic skin) is a material that perfectly imitates human skin, allowing you to practice the technique stress-free and make mistakes without any consequences. Only when you gain skill and confidence that you can execute a design on human skin, can you move on to tattooing people.

Artificial skins from the renowned ProSkin brand, in various dimensional variants, including double-sided, are available in the permanent offer of Ars Tattoo.

Accessories for designing and transferring patterns

Learning to tattoo also means learning to design and transfer tattoo patterns onto the skin. You will definitely find various drawing accessories useful, for example, a cartridge-form pen for tattoo practice. It is worth consistently expanding your portfolio to have a ready database of works to start a professional tattoo artist's business.

Finally, we recommend literature and magazines dedicated to the art of tattooing, which can be a source of much inspiration for you, help you take your first steps, and also provide valuable knowledge necessary to refine your technique and avoid basic mistakes.

Do you have a moment? Then check out other articles on the Ars Tattoo blog, where we, among other things, advise on what every professional tattoo studio should be equipped with, and also how to care for a tattoo step by step.