Field Notes
Field Notes
- The Engine: estimating a studio's burn rate from three restocks How the Engine on the Studio page turns a studio's own restocks into a proposal: the two rates, the ten-day rule, the fourteen-day box, and the one thing it never does.
- Ordering tattoo supplies from the US to Canada and Europe: duties, VAT, lead times What a studio in Canada or Europe pays and waits for when it restocks from the United States: the shipping services, the duties and import VAT on delivery, the cut-off, and the...
- Why our Pigment system is closed until 2027: MoCRA, REACH and the label What it takes to put a name on a bottle of tattoo ink in the United States and in Europe, why we will not do it before we can carry it, and...
- Wireless batteries for pen machines: runtime, voltage, and what to check How a wireless battery changes a station, what the voltage and capacity numbers mean, the habits that make one last, and why the battery ships within the United States only.
- Thermal stencil paper: printer or hand tracing, and why transfers fail How the four layers of a thermal stencil sheet work, when a thermal printer beats hand tracing, and the causes behind the five most common transfer failures.
- Nitrile gloves for tattooing: sizing, thickness, how many a session burns Why nitrile, what the thickness number means, how fit changes the work, and the simple count that tells a studio how many boxes a week it really uses.
- Barrier setup for a station: film, sleeves, bags, grips, in order What each barrier material covers, the order that keeps clean hands clean, and how a studio works out how many of each it burns in a week.
- Sterile packaging checks before every session: seal, date, lot A thirty-second check that catches the failures that matter: the seal, the expiry, the lot and the storage. What passes, what fails, and what to do with a fail.
- How to read a lot number, and why we record every box What the lot on a sterile box means, what it lets you trace, and the one habit that makes a recall answerable: keep the box until the last unit is gone.
- Needle gauge and taper: what 0.30 and 0.35 change on skin The two numbers on a needle that a spec sheet must state: diameter and taper length. What each changes, and what to ask when a sheet leaves them out.
- Cartridge configurations explained: RL, RS, M1, RM What the code on a tattoo needle cartridge means, what each configuration is for, and how to read one against a spec sheet.
- Tattoo aftercare for studios: the protocol, the film, the hand-off What a studio controls after the needle stops: the wrap, the written instructions and the materials it hands over. What the Cure system will carry, and why it is closed for now.