2024 Review

We are grateful for every bit of amazing artist support which gives us the right to exist at all. Thank you.

If you take anything away from this article, its go and join your local artist representative body like the PTAA or ATG because things are moving too fast for artists not to have a unified voice and ensuring you are not just passengers to change.

Git on up ✈️

2024 was a year of travel, no time for napping. Speaking to artists around the country, no one was having an easy year. Everyone has less disposable income and more pressures to face. We remain committed to making things as easy as possible for artists on the supply side and are working hard to keep quality standards high while also offering more economical options available.

Trips taken all around WA as well as Melbourne, Ballarat and Sydney to visit artists around our beautiful country and attend the incredible Sydney Tattoo Convention and West Aus Tattoo Fest conventions.

Ballarat is a special place, one of Australia’s’ historic towns, a steel production hub for some time before everything was offshored, and where Des Connolly cast his bulldog frames for Sailor Jerry. We caught up with the King Kong Tattoo Shop and Left Hand Lucky crews as well as time for a tattoo from Tattoo legend Jed Hill.

Visiting Johnny “Dollar” Entwistle was a special moment, spending time with the man listening to Johnny Cash, viewing some incredible photos and flash and getting tattooed made for an amazing day.

Brett Stewart was very generous to allow me to visit him and view the museum collection he has preserved over the decades.

Blew my mind seeing some of the depth and quality of history Brett has rescued from past shop closures, dumpsters, public auctions and donations and I can’t wait to see more of this documented and presented in his new museum facility.

A quick trip to Amsterdam where the ancient port city contains some wonderful shops and tattoo legends.

Visiting the incredible shop and team at Schiffmacher & Veldhoen Tattooing, I was lucky enough to find time in the books of Hanky Panky for a tatt, visit Tattoo Peters former studio around the corner and meet the formidable man that is Tattoo Molly.

Beautiful city and wonderful people.

Quality artists operated conventions are taking hold again pushing out the money grabbing gigs and long may it continue. Rhys, Todd and Katie did an amazing job for their second year of the Sydney Tattoo Convention and it was a pleasure to attend, joining Australia’s top artists and some incredible guests.

Tattooed by Brett Cohen and Andrew Stortz that week. We did offer a seminar on the state of tattoo supply, including regulatory changes and some of the things to avoid, you can catch it on YouTube as we recorded it all.

Part of that seminar was published in Tat Chat, the annual PTAA tattoo magazine which we are stoked and humble by, check it out, the mag is free with PTAA membership and has a bunch of featured artists, updates and more.

WA finally got its artist led convention, with the heart and soul of Angus and Tess bringing something special for us at the beautiful Winthrop hall. We hosted the apprentice competition testing the young ones nerves with a tough quiz and building their own coil machine up on stage, what an amazing effort from our finalists @niceguy_teddy and @dangerousdave_ and our machine maker @smythirons helping the crew get through the challenges.

Which Industry?
There has never been more choice for artists as there are today. Saturation of suppliers, mass market online shopping sites and new brands launching everyday. IBIS World valued the spend on tattoos in the USA alone as $1.6billion in 2023. That’s just in the USA. Its big business and big businesses attract attention.

Ever notice in a supermarket when all the special brands you like start to disappear in favour of more generic, cheaper replacements? That happens allot and it is happening in tattoo. It is a fact that a majority of the larger, long existing tattoo brands are no longer independently owned and have been purchased by investment houses.

Competition drives out the little guy, and while we are worried about our own skin in the game, artists should be concerned about any decent supplier they use, including our competitors, who just can’t compete with Temu and Amazon or massive investment banking backed supply business coming in from overseas.

If you like your local supplier, the options and service they provide, then support them with your orders or they may not be around for much longer.

A very good reason to buy local is insurance, yours that is! Australian law moves the legal responsibility for the equipment and supplies to the importer, in our case the tattoo equipment distributor (us).

This overcomes the difficulty Australian artists would have should a legal action result where a foreign company is the responsible party for the goods or equipment. Local suppliers should maintain adequate Public and Product Liability insurance for this reason and establishes legal protection for you as artists.

When an artist buys from a website involving a foreign supply source, they may find themselves exposed. Should they encounter any legal process or action in relation to a tattoo they would likely have more difficulty working with that non-Australian based supplier.

Innovation
We had a lot of fun bringing some new products to you this year, including a couple of coils from one of tattoos most giving characters

Mr Eddy Deutsche, and preserving coil users access to genuine parts with stock from the National Tattoo Supply when it closed its historic door late last year.

As we said, equipment brands are being bought out and lots if suppliers are looking more and more the same, shilling the cheap generic options. Those of us that care, have to do more than point and talk.

That’s why we launched the Artist Amplifier Program this year, setting aside $30,000 each year for Australian artists needing help launching their own, new ideas and products. We don’t take any ownership shop, control or profits, we just put up the cash to fund the first production that turns your ideas to reality.

Suppliers should be supporting artist made products and innovation, this is what we are doing to walk that walk.

Check it out here:
https://industrytattoosupply.com.au/blogs/news/launching-the-artist-amplifier

Our Commitment to You
For 2025, focus and reliability is our motto. We don’t want a giant store full of generic brands, we want a store focussed on quality, innovation and artist owned products. We are continuing to drop some of the large, well-known brands previously stocked, who now seem to have sold out quality and service standards in favour of profit and volume. You can expect more artist owned, smaller brands, reliable stocks of your essentials and the same awesome and present service standards you should deserve.

We will also give back. By sponsoring your events, giveaways, reposting’s and anyway we can help, reach out and ask. We are stoked to sponsor two amazing Aussie podcasts,  Fill in the Gaps with Egg @fitg_podcast and Rats Get Fat podcast with Jake and Zuzz @ratsgetfatpodcast. Love what these guys are doing and stoked to be able to contribute. Make sure you give them a follow and support your locals.

Love to you all, happy new year and here is to a fun and prosperous 2025 ❤️