5 Best Tattoo Machines for Beginners & Professionals
Many new artists aspire to begin their professional journey as tattoo artists but often struggle to find the perfect tattooing machine. Although, many tattoo machines are available in the market but they don’t have user-friendly controls and features. Typically, a good tattoo machines for beginners should have the following features:
- Simple controls
- Adjustable speed and power
- Lightweight, ergonomic, and user-friendly design
- Low vibration
- Complete starter kit
- Safety features
Based on these features, the following are the best tattoo machines for beginners:
- Dragonhawk Pro
- Wormhole Tattoo Pen Kit
- Solong Tattoo Pen
- STIGMA Tattoo Machine
- TATELF G12 Rotary Tattoo Machine
The best part of these machines is that they are super budget-friendly, making them the perfect choice for beginners. They can be used for both learning purposes and professional work. This review will highlight their essential functions, features, specifications, performance, pros, and cons.
Best Tattoo Machines for Beginners Review
Dragonhawk Pro 1013-7-2 Tattoo Gun
Pros:
Cons:
Dragonhawk is known for producing quality tattoo machines, whether coil or rotary. This brand especially has a strong reputation in the industry for providing reliable and user-friendly tattoo machines for beginners.
Dragonhawk Pro is a top choice for new starters from this brand due to its best features. This pen-style machine is super easy to set up and use. Moreover, it’s very light, weighing only 135 grams, and has a sturdy frame of anodized aluminum, making it super durable.
You can use this machine to learn and practice fake tattoo skin. However, it only comes with one practice skin, so you’ve to buy them separately. But, it includes other necessary accessories such as a tattoo power supply, 20 pcs of needles, ink, a rotary pen, and other items. However, the foot pedal with the Kit needs to be fixed.
Besides, this tattoo machine lacks durability and reliability for long-term use. In my case, it stopped working after just a few months. Therefore, it is only suitable for learning purposes on practice skin and fruit but not recommended for professional tattooing that requires long-lasting performance.
Furthermore, the Dragonhawk Pro tattoo gun has a 3.5mm stroke. This stroke makes it the best beginner tattoo gun to practice shading, lining, and permanent makeup as a beginner.
Moreover, this gun is compatible with other brands of needles. And I checked with Big Wasp tattoo needles for outlining, and they work perfectly. However, needles that come with packages are very small and are only for lining, not shading.
Wormhole Tattoo Pen Kit
Pros:
Cons:
This is another of the best rotary tattoo pen for beginners to learn the art of tattooing work. This rotary pen has an ergonomic and super lightweight design, making it user-friendly and easy to use. Especially if you’re a complete newbie, they’ve got an online guide for customers to guide them on how to set up and use this easy starter tattoo kit.
It installed a powerful motor that is quite yet reliable and makes minimum vibration in running. And this machine allows you to set voltage between 6v to 8v for best performance. The Kit comes with a dual power supply.
But in my experience and testing, the power box could be more consistent. It keeps cutting during the tatting operation; even some other online users reported this issue. However, this tattoo power supply has an anti-protection feature that automatically turns off the device in case the voltage is too high.
Furthermore, the package comes with complete accessories of the tattooing Kit, including tattoo needles, ink, tattoo pen, and many others. And it will help you get started quickly without needing additional items. Most items in the Kit, including fake skin, needles, and tattoo ink, are of terrible quality.
Besides all of this, its price is much cheaper than Dragonhawk Pro. It is even fair to call it the best affordable tattoo machine.
Solong Tattoo Pen
Pros:
Cons:
Solong Tattoo Pen is the best affordable wireless tattoo machine available for beginners right now. This pen-style machine is designed to be easily used for beginners, giving actual pen experience in holding.
It is particularly made with aircraft Aluminum alloy, which has been precisely manufactured with CNC-Machined. After that, it has also undergone an anodization process, which ensures corrosion resistance properties and provides a decorative finish.
Solong Tattoo Pen features a Taiwan-made motor that performs steadily, but it’s only good for small tattoos. Moreover, this tattoo machine is good for lining, color packing, and shading. However, this Pen cannot use to create large tattoo designs such as shoulder for a longer time.
Moreover, it makes some extra vibration. However, it runs very quietly compared to coil tattoo machines. Also, it works with most brand’s needles. Moreover, voltage is also precisely adjustable between 4.5 to 10.5v.
STIGMA Tattoo Machine
Pros:
Cons:
STIGMA Tattoo Machine with a Japanese motor offers excellent performance and torque, making it perfect for the most demanding tattooing work. Plus, it will stay cool even if you use it for a long time.
Like the Solong Tattoo Pen, its body frame is CNC-Machined from a tough, lightweight metal( Aluminum alloy). This makes the machine strong, sturdy, lightweight, anti-slip resistant, and easy to use.
It comes with a beautiful style rotary pen, which is great not only for beginners but also for professional tattoo artists. This gun is compatible with all standard tattoo cartridge needles, and needle depth is also easy to adjust.
However, the needle does not stays lock well in the pen. Another downside is this tattoo machine is a bit expensive compared to other products. But overall, this Kit is ideal for beginners who want to get started. The package comes with the following items:
- 1 rotary pen
- Power boxy
- 20pcs cartridge needles
- Cover
- Grip
- RCA connector cords
TATELF G12 Rotary Tattoo Machine
Pros:
Cons:
TATELF G12 is generous in terms of what tattooing accessories it comes with. It’s a complete starter kit with everything to start working without buying anything else to practice. For example, it includes the following things:
- Power supply
- 6 Colors ink
- LED display
- 20pcs needles
- Ink cap cup
- Fake skin
- Rotary pen
Besides the Kit, this Rotary Tattoo Machine offers many other benefits that make it best for a newbie. The machine is lightweight, smooth, and easy to practice on fake skin. The ergonomic design makes it hold steadily for a longer time.
This machine features a powerful motor with a gear system. As a result, it provides reliable, consistent, and quieter needle movement to transfer ink into the skin smoothly. This small-size machine is great for shading, lining, and permanent makeup.
Voltage power is also easily adjustable, and the power box works well. Moreover, unlike other machines like Dragonhawk Pro, TATELF G12’s foot pedal works well.
Overall, it’s a good machine at a very budget-friendly price, but the kit accessories are of poor quality such as the ink that comes with it could be better quality.
For example, I used this ink on some tattoo designs, and the tattoo’s color faded quickly. Besides this, the package only contains shading needles, which makes no sense as a start kit.
FAQs
What is the best tattoo gun for beginners?
Dragonhawk Pro is the best tattoo gun for beginners. This machine has super friendly control and design, which make it perfect for starters.
What is a beginner tattoo voltage?
As beginners, you can adjust voltage between 5v and 8v because this machine runs slowly, making it easy to use.
Conclusion:
Learning tattoo art is not as difficult as some think; you need the right direction and tools. A good tool should be used to learn control, lightweight design, simple setup, low vibration, adjustable speed, compatibility with different needles, consistent performance, and complete starter kit.
By looking at these features, I tried to compile a list of the best tattoo machines for beginners. From the list, you can choose according to specific demands.
Flora Jones is a licensed professional tattoo artist with over 5 years of experience working at various studios in Arizona. In addition to her artistry, she enjoys sharing her knowledge and expertise on various tattoo-related topics through her writing.