I was looking for tattoo furniture about a year or two ago and I found this company called Tatsoul.
They make tattoo chairs that change into any position so no more need for a chair and a massage table; you get it all with one piece of furniture.
These are the chairs used on Miami ink. I go by there and drool every once in a while until I can get my own.

A few months back when I was on their site and I saw that they had a new type of tattoo needle coming out called the Spearmen Envy Needles.
Basically a new type of long tapered needle. Two weeks ago a rep from Tatsoul contacted me from my site and asked if I would like a sample.

Funny thing is my buddy a fellow artist and I were talking about these needles so I jumped at the offer. The needles arrived in a few days.
They sent me a combat kit of the most common groupings I use, 3-7 liners and 7 and 9 mag.

When I opened the package I have to say I was impressed.
The finish alone on these compared to my standard needles was amazing and I hadn't even taken them out of the blister pack yet.
The needles are the cleanest construction I have ever seen.

Along with trying different premade needle brands along my career. I have made my own mags and liners for years.
It takes a while to get them to look nice and these are better then anything I have ever made and I thought I was good.

Artists have to try different brands and needle types to see what best fits their style.
Long tapers are good for fine stuff but they tend to flex a lot making you work harder to get ink in and do straight lines,
something that you newer guys know about. Bullet tips are great for color packing like American traditional style but not good for small stuff or the powdery gradients. I found myself gravitating toward a standard taper number twelve a multi purpose needle.

Others may disagree with me on how these needles are used but this is what I have gathered from trying different stuff over the years.
It's all about personal preference and experience.

So the first tattoo I have done with these is some of my standard gray wash. I have to say these are some of the best needles I have ever used.
I want to say best but I haven't done enough work with them to determine yet.

The difference I noticed was that the needles are super stiff. That is great especially for a long tapered needle.
Less flex and curling means that the ink is going to go in easier. Up close I could see that the needles made smoother gradients.
I can tell though that even though it's a long taper that these would also be good for solid color fill. The ink went in really easy and filed areas effortlessly.

Close up of Tatsoul Spearman and other premade tattoo needle



The ink flow is amazing. The finish is more then cosmetic. The needles have some of the cleanest soldering I have seen.
The smoother the soldering the better the ink flow; this also prevents splatter, ink from staying in the tube and needle jump in the tip.
It had a nice flow from needle to skin like writing with a pen.

On their large mags above a 15 grouping the needles are back cut at an angle. I imagine this is for reduction of extra weight on the needle bar.
It may not seem like much but reducing reciprocating mass on a small level can help your machine run better.
By not having extra weight it can run at lower volts. Kind of like balancing an engine. You can tell the difference between a 7 mag and running an 11 mag in some machines. They just have trouble running bigger groupings.

Their needles are a little more expensive by about a dollar more average per box then other premades out there but I think if it's a quality product it's worth it.

I would recommend trying these out on your next needle purchase. After talking on the phone with their rep Billy I have to say I like them even more.
Good customer service is hard to find and Billy was more then willing to talk about the needles with me and answer any questions I had.

Feel free to hit Billy up and he'll answer any questions about the needles. You can mention that you heard about the needles here from me on the forum.
If you decide to order they have a promo code you can use that's good for the whole year
”LAUNCH2009”

They ship to the UK and Europe. I asked about AU members and he said if anyone that knows of a good AU distributor let me know because they would be willing to ship to Australia and New Zealand. So you down under guys aren't left out.

If anybody has tried these so far talk about what you think good or bad.
I think it's a good product and I know a lot of you new guys on here are always wanting to see what are the best products to use.

I'm going to give more feed back on what I think the more work I do with them.
I have finished some larger work with the new needles and have done some medium sized stuff so far but nothing huge and just with these needles.

I am going to place an order this week and let you guys know how it goes over the next month.


Envy Needles site

Tatsoul Tattoo Furniture

TatSoulSPearmen Needle represenative Billy
billy@tatsoul.com
Promocode Launch2009

when you order the sample theres a number i believe you can call to check on the status of your sample...

said 2-4 Weeks due to high request and limited stock...got them in a week...real clean looking....7L appears as tight as some supertights i got...7 and 11 Curved and weaved mags look nice....cant wait to try em

How are the needles working out?

There really nice, not really busy enough to need a new supply just yet, but any news on a uk supplier?

Not as of yet, but we are still working on it...

two times ive been told i will recieve a sample pack.you have my choices on your site (and through email i believe),and im sure you can track i have recieved nothing from you guys as of yet.i hope im not sounding like a dick,and i appreciate that you are even offering a sample.its just ive been promised twice already that my sample is coming in a week or two,and it has not,and i believe its been like 2 months. already

hopefully i get to try these needles without having to buy them first and getting to see if they work for me first.

end rant/

thanks

Count

try calling the number...when i ordered my samples i got an email saying they got the sample request and what not and it also said:
"If you need any help or need to check on the status of your samples, feel free to call us at: 1.888.TAT.SOUL (1.888.828.7685)."

Tatsouls are great needles but no good if you can't get them

thank you

Well I'm just going to say, no other company offers samples of their needles. At least none I have encountered outside of a convention but anyway. I have given a lot out to pros in the Bay area and most use them now and I use them I guarantee you will like them.

I've used some of the samples. I'll say that i am impressed with the craftsmanship of the oversized mags. The liners are like 'tight' liners. the tight 3's are ultra tight, however i don't think that they are going to increase your lining skills as mentioned in the first few pages of this post. I can't say that they are most impressive needles i've ever seen, the groupings are consistent, and the blister packs are quite nice. Aside frmo the big mags i don't see that much difference from other high quality needle manufacturers. tat-soul is a contender in the needle market, albeit a smidge pricey.

thank you tatsoul,i got my sample today (and i thought no way its coming after this lon) it had 4 or 5 needles in it,is that right.cause canadian customs opened it for some reason and the box was all jacked up.

also your prices on the paper i got.how many in each box.and can you mix and match?

This post has been edited by fatcount: Nov 10 2009, 01:45 PM

To you guys who use stainless tatsoul is going to start carrying tubes and grips. They will have the morphix grip we bought some at the shop and tried them out. Nice ergonomic feel so the machine lays in the hand with out having to grip just have to hold on less hand stress. Fits left or right and different grip styles.

If you still prefer disposable the grips will fit on plastic gripless tubes if you prefer those.

So Tatsoul has expanded into other tattoo supplies. They have the full Alla Prima line, Kuro Sumi is going to be carried in a week or two along with Eternal full line and Intenze full line. They started to carry Martini Machines. I haven't used them or herd much but they look like decent Irons. I'll post more when I find out.

I think Tatsoul should set up production in the UK to cater for the massive UK/European market, which is easily bigger than the US market. ( yes seriously). The main thing that will be putting off investors/wholesalers here is the import tax. I nearly did a big deal with Stencil Stuff last year but the import tax killed it for me. The price a UK supplier would have to charge to pay this tax would put buyers off.

if they had a base here they could swallow most of the extra tax costs and they would definitely make a bigger profit because everything costs 20% more (or more) than in the US anyway.

There is a huge market I doubt it is bigger then the US but it would be a good move on their part.

We are actually planning our next move to expand our premium supplies to the UK. We are currently developing high end steel tubes and disposable tubes as we speak. The general rule is that we would begin selling here in the states for about half a year to a year before we expand the same product line to Europe. Like any new product line, there is always room for some minor improvements/upgrades in the first year that way when we do expand to the European market, we have a very solid product. That's how we've been doing with our furniture line and that's the same concept for our supplies once it is ready. Expect a TATSoul-Spearman Supply ready in the UK around winter of 2010.

*UPDATE to our Australian clients* Our Envy Needles and TATSoul chairs are now carried exclusively through www.tatink.com.au. The Envy Needles will be available some time in late January or early February. Their service and product line is unmatched. We have also added a secondary inspection process to our Envy Needles that adds even more consistency to the needles.

This post has been edited by TATSoul: Dec 24 2009, 12:11 PM

Tried the 8 traditional liner. SWEET.

looking to get some new needles to but just dont see what the difference between the trad en standard needles are.,...

i normally use tights(bug) on most of my needles and like the way they work just for colour fill( solid black) i have some probs...


so any one know the difference?


later

danny

definitely need an european distributor!!!!

This post has been edited by Fabio M.: Dec 25 2009, 02:54 PM