Hey there!

[stephwhite13]

Hey guys! My name is Steph, and I'm an ultra-noob. I work full-time at a shop in Sarasota, FL called A Body of Art. Only been tattooing for 2 years now, and played with some rotaries a few times. A friend of mine suggested I come check this place out when I was seeking some advice. Looks like you guys have a lot of great info to share, and I look forward to learning from you all. I've almost exclusively used coils since I started, but I'm really interested in taking a dip in the rotary pool. I'm looking for a well-made machine to get me going, but I'm also not ready (or able) to shell out $500+ right now. I've gotten some tips to check out the Neotats, but if anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears!

I'm still working on getting some photos up in my albums, but hopefully I'll have those going by the end of the day. In the meantime, if you want to check out any of my work you can find it on www.facebook.com/stephwhiteart feel free to critique! Aside from tattooing I really love good beer, drawing, and painting. Graduated from Ringling College of Art & Design (BFA in Illustration) right when I finished up my apprenticeship, now just struggling to pay back my student loans! But I definitely can't imagine another way I'd rather be doing it.

Thanks for looking, cheers!

[ssmith297]

Welcome the addictive world of Rotaries man. Once you get one of them, you'll want all of them. Neotats are good, you can find a decent Vivace for probably around the 300~ area. A few personal suggestions:

RotaryWorks
https://www.facebook.com/rotary.works

UK based builder. Great customer support, machines are top notch. Haven't bought one personally but a guy in my shop has one and he does great work with it.

Nick's Rotaries
https://www.facebook.com/dubangiu.nicolae

Great standup guy. Super easy to talk with, he'll explain everything to you and some. Bought my first major rotary from him, still using it as my main liner. He puts great work into both his Rotaries and Coil machines alike. His range around the 300 ballpark as well.

Also try using the buy/sell forum, you can usually get some great deals on there, plus most of everyone will help sort you out on your specific needs and wants. And a lot of the main builders (Spektra, Stigma, etc) have accounts here as well. They usually give good deals to the forum members here, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Enjoy your stay, man.

[OwlsDen]

Rapier II is a hell of a good machine. You will see them on here for 200-250$ pretty regularly. I have 4 and almost always reach for one first. Cary has some newer machine too and they seem to start at 300 and go to about 400$ new. He is a great guy and always answers all my questions.

[Wonderland]

You have some good clean tattooing that is for sure. Neotat's are a great machine and they are super quiet, of course the Halo is a good machine if you like to have some adjustability, Dan kubin is a rock solid machine. I use these the most lately.

Also nick's, HM machines, eddie lollis, and special technique too.

[stephwhite13]

Thanks for all the great suggestions!! I'll definitely be taking a closer look at these, I've never even heard of some of them.

@Wonderland: thanks for the tips and compliment!



EDIT: Updated my photo albums on here, so feel free to check 'em out.