It all started back in 2016 when I got my first ever tattoo machine as a Christmas gift from my partner at the time. Well actually it was a full kit with absolutely everything you need to get started including x2 Dragonhawk coil machines along with needles, disposable cartridges, inks, practice skins, stencil paper... the full works!

This is some of the line work I done with the Dragonhawk liner machine. Although the machine had cheap parts that would rattle loose after a little time, you can see it was good enough for beginners and it was fully capable of pulling decent lines.

The shader machine wasn't too bad either!

Then I tested out the colour inks that came with the kit and they were ok for how cheap they were. The kit came with 50x 10ml different colours so there were plenty to choose from!

Then in December 2019 I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and I invested in a professional set up.

After weeks of studying endless reviews on what tattoo machines are rated the best and what machine would suit me the most, I decided to go for the Spectra Xion Pen style rotary machine. Of course having a great machine is one thing, but without a good power supply and the equipment to go with it, it's useless.

So I also bought a Critical tattoo CX2R power supply along with the Critical wireless pedal to match. All in all with x4 boxes of needle cartridges and better practice skins, the overall cost was around £1,200.

Check out the difference in quality when you use a good machine...

Progress of realistic tiger tattoo on fake skin. The fake skin I use is made of silicone and 3mm thick. The sheet size I typically use are 60cm x 60cm and can be found on amazon. But be careful and make sure you read the reviews! You're looking for a soft silicone. I once made a purchase of silicone skin sheets that were tough as old boots and the skin was so rigid it would barely even fold. This made it difficult for the needles to penetrate the skin.

Although the practice skin I used for this traditional ship design was the super tough stuff and one pass lines were pretty much out of the question, I was still chuffed on how this traditional tattoo came out! You can watch me create this tattoo along with x3 other traditional ship artworks in my YouTube episode "x1 Artwork x4 Ways".