A good quality tattoo chair is a vital piece of furniture for your studio. Prices start at around $150 for a decent chair. A good budget model is the Desktop Portal from Oakworks, which costs $166. It is a versatile option as it can be used on top of a table as a face support when a client is lying down, or at the edge of a table for a seated client. It allows good access to clients’ necks, backs and shoulders which are common body parts to have tattoos. It is one of lightest pieces of equipment available, has TerraTouch upholstery and a lifetime limited warranty.

For a more expensive chair, the Wellspring at $390. It is a portable table weighing only 12kg but is still extremely strong and flexible – an all-round reliable piece of furniture. With semi-firm padding, TerraTouch upholstery and uniLock closure system it gives clients both comfort and security.

At the high end of the price range, the Alliance Wood ($468) is another portable model with a six position, 60 degree adjustable backrest. Lightweight and versatile yet sturdy, it is a good investment for your studio.

Amazon has a selection of chairs to suit all budgets. The Aosom Blue 3″ Foam Portable Massage Chair is suitable for tattooists. It comes with an aluminum face rest, a secure storage bag and 3 years warranty and costs only $99.99.

The Sierra Comfort Professional Series Portable is $149.99 from Amazon and has everything a well-equiped tattoo artist needs. Made from beach timber with 2.5” high density foam for optimum comfort, it includes a removable extended arm rest, bolsters, face rest, several height adjustments and a carry handle and case.

There is a great deal of choice in tattoo chairs; if you do a bit of research you will find the right one for you.

There are many tattooing chairs on the market today that will not only compliment any studio’s style, but also provide the features necessary for body art. Many people are mistaken that beauty salon chairs or massage tables would be suitable for the needs of a tattoo artist. This is entirely untrue, tattoo specific chairs offer the much need support rests for the arm and feet and quality chair allow the user to modify the height of not only the chairs, but also the arm and leg height.

FabTec claims to be the original tattoo furniture manufacturer, that was developed for tattoo artists by tattoo artists. These chairs are easily convertible to a tattoo table, and include adjustable back rests, stainless steel arms, and 2 inches of foam for increased comfort. The arms of these tables adjust on four axis, from up, down, around or in and out. The legs also offer specific adjustments in one inch increments, making it suitable for the vertically challenged and basketball players alike!

If you already have found a quality chair, and are in need of a table as well, there are tables specific to the art of tattooing as well. A quality table will be no only comfortable, but designed to assist the artist. The Oakworks portable tattoo table is affordable without compromising quality. Priced at $254, it offers a 3 inch multi-purpose foam padding, that is easy to clean. Extending to 73 inches in length and 30 inches in width, it will suit the needs of any size. The height is also adjustable between 24 and 34 inches with a maximum weight capacity of 500 pounds.

So if you are furnishes your own studio, or looking for a good chair for your booth, make sure to purchase a quality tattoo chair or table.

One of the most popular hydraulic chairs on the market is the Encore Hydraulic Tattoo Chair. This is chair made specifically for tattoo artists – in other words, it’s not a general or all purpose chairs, it is a chair made in mind for professional tattoo artists. Let’s take a closer look at this chairs features and price.

Type of Chair: Hydraulic Tattoo Chair
Price: $500 US
Tattoo Chair Features:
- Rotates around entirely 360 degrees
- Has a heavy duty metal base as well as a heavy duty hydraulic pump
- Comfortable Thick Foam Cushioning all on parts
- Adjustable parts; includes the headrest, back and legrest
- Arms can be removed if needed (without any need to mess with nuts and bolts!)
Color:
- The Encore Hydraulic Tattoo Chair is available in black or white
Weight: 375 pounds
Dimensions: Approximately 67 inches in its length and 28 inches in its width

Comments and Reviews:

This is an all around solid tattoo chair. It’s completely adjustable, it’s comfortable, it looks sharp in both black or white – but personally I prefer the solid black look over the white version. The hydraulic pump makes it easy to use. You can swivel this chair completely around with no problem and adjust it to be taller or lower so you can easily access to the areas of the body being tattooed.

Another reason to go with a company like Encore is that unlike some other companies which make general and all purpose salon chairs that can be used for tattooing but aren’t made for it, is that Encore makes tons of tattoo furniture. Encore makes various tattoo client chairs, tattoo artist stools, hydraulic chairs, non hydraulic chairs, as well as flat bed tables, magnifying lamps, trays, trolleys, and more – all made with the goal of making furniture specific for giving tattoos: in other words, tattoo furniture!

We can divide up all the types of tattoo furniture into a few broad categories. Let’s now do this and analyze the different types of tattoo furniture, starting from what we probably could say is the most important furniture to have on down to items you still need but aren’t as critical to your operation.

Client Tattoo Chairs – The customer needs a place to lie or sit when receiving a tattoo, and that place is the client side tattoo chair. Tattoo chairs range in price from a couple hundred dollars on up into the thousands. Chairs rotate, move up and down, (i.e. hydraulic tattoo chairs) and adjust as necessary to get the proper height and comfort thing going between the client and the artist.

Artist Tattoo Chair/Stool – The second part of the set up between the customer and the tattoo artist is the small stool used by the tattoo artist. These usually have no back, swivel, and lengthen to go up or down. These types of tattoo chairs cost under $100.

Display Case & Display Furniture – How do you plan to show your customers your flash art collection? Many shops put up glass displays and place the art behind the glass on the walls. More in depth options include giant book-like rafters that you flip through, each oversized page connected to the wall containing a dozen or more pieces of art. On a similar note, if you group body piercing services into your shop, you’ll need glass counter top display cases to showcase and protect the body jewelry for sale. Display cases generally end up costing a shop $1,000’s of dollars to buy, install, and maintain. As such, this makes for one of the most expensive tattoo furniture items needed in a shop.

Couches and Seats – It’s common to set up a tattoo shop so that potential customers can walk in, grab a book of tattoo flash art, and take a seat on a big comfy couch and start perusing possible designs. Most every shop these days has a couple couches for customers to relax in. (Not to mention, you’ll find employees and their friends using these couches probably more than anyone else. Obviously prices for couches vary considerably. However, there’s little reason to spend more than a couple hundred dollars per couch in my opinion. A place like Ikea sells cool artsy couches perfect for tattoo shops that fit within this price range, making them a pretty cheap tattoo furniture deal! (Also note though that there are specialty niche businesses that cater to the tattoo industry, which do make couches, chairs, and other furniture for customers to sit on that are specifically made for tattoo shops.)

Misc. Furniture Items - This category can be expanded to include quite a few tattoo shop furniture items you might see or want to use. This includes artisan items such as heat lamps to functional furniture items such as a front desk to coffee tables for flash art books to rest on.

There are many different types of tattoo chairs out there on the market, from the all purpose tattoo chair that could also double as a massage, barber, or stylist chair, to the flat tattoo chair that one lies on, to a sit up chair that you sit in to expose the back, shoulders, and arms for easy tattooing.

What are some of the nicer, nifty features offered in a good tattoo chair? Let’s take a look at some things artists appreciate in the tattoo chair for the clients.

1. Adjustable Head Support.
Like going to the dentist, massage therapist, or hair styling, if you’re sitting in a chair for awhile and need to have your head back, you need a good way to support for it. The answer is adjustable head support, so that no matter the height of the client, their head can comfortably rest. The truth is one size does NOT fit all when it comes to the tattoo chair, and having one with adjustable head support reflects this fact.

2. Stable, Rubber Footing and a Locking Mechanism for Safety.
These items all relate to making sure the tattoo chair doesn’t move. One can only imagine the nightmare it could be if a table continually shifted around in a wobbily fashion, or – far, far worse! – collapsed while a client was on it! Having a tattoo chair with rubber footing provides a way to make the overall chair more stable. The locking mechanism in this case refers to chairs that are collapsible or foldable. Having a lock to switch on and off in order for the foldable mechanisms to work is a great way to make sure the chair stays stable.

3. Collapsible or Foldable Parts.
A tattoo chair for the client is a decent sized piece of furniture. A good chair is also not a lightweight piece of junk! This means a tattoo chair with parts that either collapse, come apart, or fold up make it much easier to transport. Just be sure the parts are entirely secure when set up or else this benefit poses a risk (such as the chair falling apart, moving, or collapsing. See number two above!)

4. Tattoo Chair Padding That is Waterproof, Oil Resistant, and Sweat Resistant.
A chair that feels oily and sweaty is going to disgust someone getting a tattoo. Rightfully, no one wants to lie for hours getting a painful tattoo in a sticky chair, even if its their own sweat! This means you’ll want to look for a chair that advertises one its benefits as providing cushioning that is oil resistant and water resistant. One type of material that provides these qualities is PU Leather, and many chairs use it for just this reason.

Bonus: Many artists love having the ability to completely rotate and adjust the chair as necessary. Check out this article on hydraulic tattoo chairs for more information!

But what is the artist doing? Standing there bent over, tattoo machine in hand, giving a tattoo, being careful not to trip over the power supply cable?

I think not. They’ve got a chair of their own. In fact, when someone uses the term tattoo chair, this actually refers to two different types of tattoo chairs.

First, we’ve got the tattoo chair we’ve mostly addressed in our other articles – the one for the client. Usually a hydraulic tattoo chair but not always.

Secondly, we’ve got the tattoo chair for the artist. They’ve got to sit on something, too!

Not surprisingly, these tattoo furniture pieces are referred to as a tattoo client chair and a tattoo artist chair, respectively.

The chair the tattoo artist sits on resembles the types of chairs used by professional drummer and massage therapists. Typically this means an adjustable stool made. Usually it’s got a comfortable mesh black seat, silver metal body, and 4 black wheels. The chair may or may not have any backing to it. Often the artist will work slightly at an angle, and so a back is not used.

As mentioned, it’s adjustable, and this is an mandatory feature, otherwise it could be horribly uncomfortable for the artist over the years using a chair that’s not ergonomically correct. This means it’s adjustable not only in the sense of height adjustment, but is mobile (wheels) and the seat itself swivels, moving side to side as the tattoo artist shifts his or her body weight.

Of the two, the client tattoo chair is far more of an investment (i.e. costs more!) because of the more materials and features a quality tattoo client chair must have. This can be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars on up into a thousand or more dollars. On the other hand, the tattoo artist chair is considerably (and thankfully) cheaper, costing anywhere from $50 to $100 from most tattoo furniture supply or general furniture companies.

So what makes a good tattoo chair?

For starters, the point of the tattoo chair is for the person receiving the tattoo and the person giving the tattoo to both be able to do their “job” effectively.

For the lucky person getting the tattoo, this means being able to remain in a single position for a length of time, sometimes many hours, without being uncomfortable and in pain. So in that sense, the tattoo chair needs to meet the needs of the customer!

For the tattoo artist, he or she needs to be able to clearly access the portion of the body where the tattoo work is being performed. The artist must be able to clearly see the area and have ample room to move their arms as necessary to perform the work. This position needs to be accomplished without straining, excessive leaning or bending on the part of the artist because just like the person receiving the tattoo must sit for a long amount of the time, the tattoo artist must be with them right along the way, the whole time too.

It’s clear then that what makes a good tattoo chair is what will meet the needs above. This often means that a tattoo chair worth its work should be:

1) Have adjustable parts so the relative height and adjustment can be reached for the artist to do their work and the person to be comfortable.

2) Use long lasting cushioning or foam material that doesn’t induce sweating or stick to sweat.

3) Be relatively light weight yet also stable so that there’s no risk of falling or moving accidentally, thus causing any accident or even risk to the person.

So in order for the tattoo artist to perform their work effectively and for the person getting the tattoo to remain comfortable in a single position for hours, it’s vital that the tattoo parlor or tattoo artist invest in the proper equipment. To do so otherwise is to minimize the execution of the artists skills, not to mention it will not be pleasing to the customers to sit or lie in an uncomfortable tattoo chair.

The words “used” in connection to any type of tattoo equipment often sounds brings up a red flag in many peoples minds. And for good reason, as there are certain tattooing equipment and supplies that absolutely should be sold used or re-used by anyone. That is to say, I’m talking about tattoo needles! These are definitely a “use once and throw away” situation in tattooing, just as they are in the hospital when it comes to giving shots.

But the tattooing chair is NOT a needle. There are no sanitation concerns in buying a used chair. (Of course you’d wipe it down with cleaner before using it, as any artist would and does do between all their customers.)

Furthermore, buying a used tattoo chair can make great business sense if you’re trying to put together everything needed on a budget that won’t allow for all shiny, brand new supplies.

So how do you buy a used tattoo chair? Also, where do you buy a used tattoo chair?

There’s actually no “secret” to it really. Short of cashing in on an unlucky shop that has lost its business and must liquidate its tattoo furniture for cheap, you’ll like buy a used chair the same way you’d buy anything else online. This includes what I call “The Big 3″.

Who are the big 3? Easy. Chances are, you use all 3 of them already:

1. Amazon
2. Ebay
3. Craigslist

Between these 3 sites you are likely to find the best deals on used tattoo chairs. For something so big, shipping costs are a concern so make sure you understand how much you’ll be charged for shipping outside of the price being quoted on the site. Amazon actually runs an awesome deal for many items where if you spend $25 or more, the shipping is free. This can translate to quite a bundle of cash when it comes to a tattoo chair!

Additionally, let’s take a closer look at Craigslist. The bigger the city you’re in, the more likely you’ll find a used tattoo chair for sale. It could take some hunting, and it could take some time. But this is by far the best way to save a large amount of money. You might find someone who intended to start up a private shop from home, bought a few tattoo kits and a chair, and then realized that it takes a bit more than this. But unfortunately buying a used tattoo chair from Craigslist is much harder to find than the sales at Amazon or Ebay for tattoo chairs.

Edit: When looking for a used tattoo chair online, consider the cross use of other types of chairs that also work as tattoo chairs. For more information, check read about The All Purpose Tattoo Chair.

For example, it’s common to find different types of chairs for sale advertised all at once as a being a:

• tattoo chair
• barber chair
• massage therapist chair
• hair styling chair
• manicure chair
• TV watching chair (OK, just kidding on this one!)

Is there anything wrong – or rather, is there anything unprofessional about using a tattoo chair that could also double as a place to cut the old man’s hair or give Mom a perm?

In a single word: no.

In two words: absolutely not!

Far from being a cheap item, the all purpose chair is actually often of superior quality over the other types of chairs marketed and sold for the individual trades above, such as a chair that is strictly a massage chair, for example.

Why is this the case? Because in order for the chair furniture to be truly effective at being a barber chair, tattoo chair, or whatever the case may be, it needs to be versatile and it needs to be of high quality. This usually means it’s going to be adjustable and hydraulic, allowing for the craftsman, be they a tattoo artist or hair styling, to adjust the chair according to the needs of the situation, job, and client.

Additionally, another perk of the all purpose tattoo chair is the ability to liquidate furniture to another business if the need arose, either because you’re replacing your current equipment (upgrading the tattoo shop, basically) or because it’s possible one day the shop itself or you as a tattooist will no longer need the chair. Having all purpose chairs means it’ll be much easier to sell a used chair to another business since they don’t have to strictly be a tattoo shop but instead could qualify under a number of other trades that need a reliable, hydraulic chair.

On this note, take a look at the following article about used tattooing equipment: Where to Buy a Used Tattoo Chair.