Wormhole Tattoo Pen Kit Review

Hey guys, what's going on? It's Nathan from tattooing101.com and today we're doing something cool. We've got a tattoo kit from wormhole tattoo supply. It's called the professional tattoo kit with 40 cartridges. So it was the most popular one that they had on their site. I put all the details here, so you can check out if you wanna take a look at it. It was 126 bucks. And yeah. So what we're gonna do today is just a bit of an unboxing.  My initial thoughts on kind of, you know, what's in the kit, you know what I like about it? What I don't like about it, then we're gonna do a tattoo using, uh, everything in the kit. Yeah. I'm just gonna tell you, you know, my thoughts on how the machine handles, what I think of the quality. Yeah. That said, let's get into it. 

Box looks pretty cool. It's got a logo on the front. First thing. Uh, they got some practice skins. They look like they're super thin. Generally the kind of the thinner practice skins. They're a lot harder for tattoo. Yeah. These are ultra thin. So you can kind of see that they do stretch a little bit, but I'm just concerned. Like if, if you kind of put your knee too deep into these, it's gonna, you know, start banging the table and he's gonna,   doll your needles. I know it might do a couple test lines on it. See how they go. Just sort of a feel for, you know, how the machine handles and, and how, how it sort of performs up next. This looks like the cord for the power supply needle cartridges. 

So it looks like we got, uh, so 12 gauge fives since 12, 12 gauge threes, really small liners. So it'll be pretty easy to push into the skin. Typically what you'll find is with sort of lower cost machines, you know, they don't always have the most powerful motors. So a lot of 'em you, you will find that's really difficult to push thicker needle groupings. So yeah, if you are kind of going for like a cheaper machine or a cheaper tattoo kit, usually most of the time you wanna stick to smaller needle groupings, I've also got some 12 gauge five mags and some 12 gauge five round mags. Okay, cool. No sevens. All right. So you've got some threes and some fives, and then we've got some five mags and some five curve mags, uh, one clip cord sleeve, obviously with this kit, if you're gonna be, you know, tattooing people, you're gonna have to buy some for stuff. 

If you're just tattooing, you know, practice skin and you can reuse the same, you know, clip cord sleeve, but obviously, you know, for hygiene reasons, if you're tattooing, you know, your mates or whatever, or just kind of, you know, marking around learning how to tattoo, you gonna wanna get some additional suppliers so that you can keep things sterile. One pair of gloves. Yeah. Again, obviously great for practice skin and things like that.   but if you just start, you know, tattoo and people, you're gonna need to get some more gloves bunch of in, cap's got a couple different sizes, which is good. I like how the in caps, this is really frustrating. Sometimes you look at the, the, incap see how it's got that sort of that rim at the bottom that makes the, the incap a lot more stable. Some of the, the in caps have it at the top. 

And, uh, I think they're used for other stuff and like are meant to be in caps for tattooing with, but it's just more stuff that you kind of needle can bash into when you're going to dip your inks. Having the, that little rim at the bottom makes your in caps a lot more stable or less likely to fall over, especially when you put some Vaseline in on the bottom of them next, you got some grip tape. This stuff's great. It's nice. It's nice and thin too. So typically for a lot of the pen machines, I'm pretty sure it's the same with a pen that comes in this kit is that you have to turn the, the pen to, uh, adjust the depth. So if you have a really, uh, thick piece of grip tape, that it's gonna go over the bit, the turns, and you're not gonna be able turn and adjust the depth once to fall wrapped up and stuff. 

So I like that they give you two cause you've got,   enough of quite a few tattoos in there. Inks. Now, again, it does say, you know, complies with EU code, like for hygiene and stuff like that, but you kind of have to realize in China, there's a lot less rules and regulations. So I I've heard, I'm not saying that this is the case of this one, but yeah, they, they just print that on the label and then they do whatever they do inside the factory. Again, it's great for practice skin. Yeah. I wouldn't recommend, uh, doing that on actual people, but we're gonna do it on some practice skin today and see how they go Cal supply. Like one of the old school ones, just turn the knob and, uh, changes the, uh, yeah. It changes the, the power,   kind of smells funny. 

It's like have like that real kind of chemical sort of plastic you smell, but yeah, it's pretty basic. It's got one hole for your pedal and then another one for your clip cord. And then yeah, you just put the, uh, this thing in the back and then it plugs into the wall and then you're put to go,   next we've got, looks like the foot pedal it's cool little box. It does feel like a little bit kind of flimsy. Like if you're accidentally, you know, like stepped on it with your full weight, like it could kind of break it, but we'll see how it goes. As long as it works, it should be fine right up. Next looks like we've got the machine in this box. It's got a cool little logo on it. Right? Cool. Not a hundred percent sure what those are for. 

I'm assuming they go onto the tattoo machine. Just have a look. So that's the clip cord sleeve for the machine. This is an RCA cord that pit will plug into the machine that will go into the power supply. So pre standard then looks like here's the, the pen machine comes at a call protective case. I like that because, you know, if, if,   if you're traveling or whatever,   you know, prevents it from getting damaged and stuff,   yeah. Looks after the machine. Makes sure it's not gonna get damaged. So there it is. Yeah. It looks like you, you twist this the end part to adjust the depth. 

Oh yeah, of course. So here's what they're as,   here's what these rubber rings would be for. If you have a look at the very outer edges,   you can see that it's got them just on the outer edges there, but it's cool. It looks like you can take this part off and auto club that if you don't have an auto club, obviously, you know, you'll have to wrap it up. So you know, this part doesn't touch skin if you tattooing people. But yeah, it's good to know that you can take that off now terms of the stroke of this machine. I had a look on the site, it's a 3.5, uh, millimeter stroke. So I'll put all the specs and stuff below this, this video as well. So you can check out, uh, all the technical stuff. Yeah. So the machine's pretty light. It's like 120 grams. 

It feels good. It doesn't feel flimsy. Like it's, it's like all metal and stuff. There's no plastic on it, which is cool. And according to the site does come with like a 12 month warranty, which is pretty good considering like, you know, a lot, a lot of people complain like when they buy like a Chinese machine or whatever, it breaks really quickly. But yeah, if they got a 12 month warranty, then hopefully it should work for a long also as well. I did read on their website that they even don't recommend that you use these inks on skin. They have a link to some other inks, uh, on their site that you should use. So yeah, don't use these inks on skin guys, even, they don't recommend them, even though it says that they comply with E health standards or whatever, doesn't say that the stroke link, uh, on the site either, but I'm assuming it's a 3.5. 

That's what most machines are. And,   yeah, it can go up to 10 volts, which is pretty good. Generally you don't really need much higher than 10 volts unless you're using really massive needle groupings. So I definitely recommend, it's kind of like, it's like a beginner machine for doing small kind of tattoos, you know, using small needle groupings, small mags stuff that doesn't require a ton of power, you know, with these, uh, rubber rings as well. What they're actually we used for is preventing kind of ink back, flowing into the machine. So not a hundred percent sure how well they work, but I guess we'll see when we start using it. Cool. Looks like a little, uh, instruction manual for the power supply. And it's got some free done flash on some more, uh, practice skin, another sheet of practice skin, a manual for the tattoo pen, which is pretty cool. 

It's actually more to than you might think. It's oh yeah. Basically it just tells you how to, how to set up the whole kit and some safety stuff. Don't leave it unsupervised with children. You get a call, little,   discount coupon. So if you send, 'em a photo of you using that kit, you get 15% off your next order. Or if you send them a video, you get 20% off and video's really good. They give you free stuff. So not every tattoo supply company does that. So that's pretty cool. Bunch of Sensoril paper. Cool. That's good that they give you a few sheets. So you, you could easily, you know, do probably 20 or 30 tattoos on that. So that's pretty, that's it? That's the whole kit terms of using this kit. It even says on their website that you shouldn't use this on human skin. 

And if you do use it, you should get professional ink. Yeah, definitely. Don't use this one on skin guys. It's just for mucking around and practice skin, even, even wormhole says so themselves either way, let's get this stuff set up, we're gonna do quick little tattoo. We're gonna see how the machine performs, what the inks are like. And yeah. Kind of give you like a, a rating on, you know, the quality, the price, the value, and I'll go from there. Okay. So I've just got everything set up from the kit, got the machine wrapped up. Everything's, you know, wrapped, ready to go. And I've got a tattoo stencil on some real skin. This is the one that we're gonna be doing, but I've also our Chuck stencil on the practice skin that came with the kit just so we can kind of try it out and see how it goes. 

I haven't got hugely high expectations just because like you can tell it's so, you know, thin and it feels super tough. I've got the other practice skin just underneath it as well to act like kind of a placement. This stuff doesn't even stretch. It's almost like a place mat, but we'll, we'll see how it goes. Yeah. The, the reason why I put something under it so that you needles just kind hard grinding against the table. It's so thin, you know, so let's just crack these needle cartridges. We'll pour some inks and then we'll get straight into the tattoo. One thing you've just gotta be, uh, careful with when you're pouring these inks, uh, from the kit, they come with like a little plastic thing on the top just to like seal it in. You have to cut it off of the Paris scissor. Just be careful when you do that. 

So you, don't kind of squirt ink everywhere if you're just like squeezing the bottle, it's just gonna like explode. So don't do that. All right. So with pour the inks and I was actually a little bit surprised, like the, the consistency, uh, of the, the ink is it's quite liquidy in the past while I've done, you know, reviews on kits and stuff. Uh, sometimes when you try and squeeze the ink out, it's almost like a thick and it just kinda like, like swirls down out of the, the incap, uh, which is a really, definitely a bad sign. You don't wanna use ink,   that does that, especially not on human skin, but, uh, this stuff looks, you know, nice and like liquidy. So that's cool.   we'll see how, how it comes, how it looks in the skin. Yeah. Go from there. So also what I'm using right now, this doesn't come with a kit, but it's, uh, an eye loop. 

It's what a lot of jewelers use,   to check, you know, make sure the diamonds are legit. Uh, but you can also use 'em on your needles to make sure that none of the barbs are like bird or bent or if, you know, sometimes they can even so them on backwards so that like the blunt end will be at the front. That's supposed to go into a person's skin. So it's always good to check your needles just to make sure that, you know, they're not busted. So one thing I don't like this is really difficult to see, uh, it can even focus, but the needle doesn't sit at the very center of the tip of the cartridge, which is an ideal, it can definitely reduce the accuracy when you're lining, but it does sit flush with the base of the tip. So that's, that's not all that, but generally when you use like kind of more, uh, our top tier kind of needle, like quadrants and stuff like that, the needles very precise, it's in the exact dead center of the tip of the cartridge. And, you know, it's flushed at the bottom, so it's not a deal breaker. Let's see how they go turn the machine up a bit. So we're on six volts right now, 

Did a couple wines on it and I've put it at the depth that I know kind of works on, you know, not only people, but also, you know, like sort of other proud. And it really doesn't want to take the ink in, like, it's super, the skin's super tough. Like I'm TAing something that's, you know, kind of like really hard, you know, and it just, yeah, it doesn't normally when you tattoo, like, you know, people or real skin, it's really, when you hit the skin, it's really soft and it kind of just,   the needle just kind of pierces it and then it's like a, it takes the ink just so much better, but it's something like this. It's, uh, we've really kind of struggled to, to get the lines in. And, uh, even when, you know, I put it the depth that, you know, usually always kind of works for me and the lines haven't gone into. Great. So the practice skin, I'm definitely not impressed with. We'll quickly try some shading and see if that's any better. And if not, we'll kind of just go onto the other, the real, 

Okay. So it's almost the impossible get like a solid kind of black on this stuff. And, and when, when you flick your needles out, the, it doesn't kind of have like the, the sort Heary dots that you get like on regular skin. So all in all definitely would not recommend using the, the practice skin that comes with the kit. And the funny thing is though, because these practice skins like are so difficult to tattoo, right? It can really, it can almost, you know, shadow your confidence. Like if you do a tattoo and it turns out that on the skin and you think that, you know, oh, you know, tattoo is not, for me, this is so terrible or it's actual, you TA something that's actually very difficult to tattoo. Whereas when you move onto something, you know, a bit, you know, more high quality, like real skin, there's a massive difference in, in how easy it is to, to do a decent line or a smooth shade. 

So I'm just gonna switch them over right now. So you kinda see the difference or finish off doing the TA on the real skin. But I think we'll leave this one for now, just because yeah, I can already straight away tell that it's, uh, it's, it's super different goal to work with and you know, it, it pushes against kind of in, yeah, it's definitely not recommended that you practice on this stuff. Cause this feels absolutely nothing like human skin. And even if you get really good at tattering this stuff, you know, you spend months working on it, you, you're not practicing for the real thing when you actually do move on the people it's completely different to this stuff. And you either push way too hard and you know, kind of completely rip up their skin or just do wrong way. And it's just not gonna, it's not gonna end well. So we're gonna get rid of this stuff. We're gonna on the real and see how we go 

I'm doing now is I've stuck my needles out a little bit further.   so that even when the machine's off the needle still pokes out the front of the tip of the cartridge. It's letting me float the needle, but that's not ideal for inflow just because the needle needs to fully retract into the tip of the cartridge in order to pull ink down each time it goes up and down. So a while this gives me a little bit more accuracy. Uh, it's making a bit more, more difficult to get in solid lines because inflows not as good. Cool. So finish the line work, uh, on this piece and a couple things, right? So first of all, uh, the machine's a direct drive. So if you wanna float your needles a little bit, if you go kind of too deep, it'll, uh, won't back off and it'll just kind of keep digging into the skin, which means you've got less marching for error. 

  which when, when you're, when you're just kind of starting out can definitely be an issue. Uh, also the, the ink isn't super dark, like when you put the, the black and you're line with it, you can see kind of the stencil underneath it. And it's not quite black. It's, it's like super faded. So it's just not very, very dark, which is, uh, which is not ideal, obviously when, when you're doing the tattoo, even a couple of these lines, like I've gone over 'em a couple times. And,   yeah, it's still, they're still not like super, super black, so I'll see how the shading goes and see if that, uh, kind of makes any difference. One thing I will say though, is that the machine doesn't vibrate a whole lot. It stays pretty still in your hand, which is really good. And also it's, it's nice and comfortable to hold. 

Uh, the pen is like kind of nice and thin. And when you put some grip tape around,   you know, the edges of it, it's nice and soft. So it doesn't sort of fatigue your hand too much. I had that running on six volts, uh, for this entire outline and yeah, it didn't, didn't sort of having trouble like that machine kind of kept running with no sort of issues in terms of the noise. It's actually, it's a really quiet machine. Most rotary machines are kind of like that. It's really good. Doesn't, doesn't sort of harm too much. It kind of just, almost like a subtle kind of vibration noise, but it's really quiet, which is awesome. Yeah. All in all, I'm Def I'm keen to see how this, this goes for, but even for a small line, I kind of really struggled with this. It could be the ink as well, when you use better inks, like, you know, dynamic black for, for it'll, it'll make things a bit easier. But,   what, wasn't my favorite machine for lining. We'll see how it goes with shading. 

All right, cool. So I just put all the blacks, uh, into the tattoo and it's looking pretty good, uh, except for, so with the inks, right. They're super watery and they're not, they're not quite as dark as something like dynamic black. So it looks like it's almost diluted a little bit. And also, uh, one thing I did like about the machine though, was that hits really soft doesn't pack a ton of punch behind it. And when you turn the vaults down to about near three or four, get those nice, uh, smooth kind of peppery shades. So I definitely like this machine a lot more for shaving than I do with lining. And one thing I didn't notice as well with the needle cartridges. So I didn't say this at the start, but if you look at all the, the needles they give you, they've got a membrane in it. 

So that's really good for hygiene stops. Any ink falling back from through the cartridge, into the machine, which is awesome. And yeah, I've been running the machine for about an hour and a half now. So far the machine's not heating up or anything like that. It's doing great. It's still,   you know, functioning. Normally the voltage is super consistent with some of the cheap machines. When you turn up the vaults and then you go in for a line it'll kind of back off a bit and the power flow will kind of become inconsistent, but this one you that at all, which is really good. One thing that kind of frustrates me with the machine though, is that,   with the, the, the grip adjustment. So it, it doesn't click, it's not set, it doesn't lock. So whenever you're turning the machine, if you, you know, need to rotate it to get like a different angle, you can actually change the depth of the machine, which is a bit frustrating. So yeah, it would've been nice if it had like a locking mechanism, uh, on the depth control. Yeah. Other than that, it's not gone, uh, definitely liked a lot more for shading on headlining. So now we're gonna lay the colors over the top of the black, and then we should be finished. 

One of the, the good things about the inks kind of a bit watered down is that it's harder to stain your colors. So if you do, you know, uh, accidentally rub a darker color over a lighter color, it's not always gonna mess it up. So it's kind of good training when you're just getting started. It's really only good for One thing that's kind of unusual about these needles is that sometimes when you put 'em in, they can, they make like a weird rattle sound. And if you kind of look inside, it looks like the membrane's kind of tapping are the sides of the cartridges, which is really, it's not normal. And it's definitely not a, not a good sign, but generally if you kind of jiggle the cartridges in a bit, you can kind of get it to stop rattling. Yeah. There you go. 

Cool. So that's pretty much the tattoo done. The colors all packed in the, the colors don't burn well together. Like when you put the blacks in first, uh, and, and your layer a color over the top of that, it kind of looks all, uh, kind of patchy and not super smooth. So again, really not a huge fan of the inks, but in terms of how the machine actually pack the color, the machine doesn't have a ton of power. So I had to kind of go over areas quite a few times, plus it only comes with small mags. So it kind of, uh, is a bit time consuming. But, you know, if, as long as you keep your ovals nice and tight, it can pack color pretty nice. Especially if, if we were using nicer inks as well, go in a lot easier, all in all, I'd say it's decent for packing, but this is mainly, I'd say where this machine really shines is black and graying lining is okay. 

And, you know, kind of packing it. It's sort of okay as well. You know, my initial thoughts would be like, this is kind of an all round machine. It's great, you know, for when you're starting out and you, you know, you maybe like a bit of a tight budget, it can do a little bit of everything. So, you know, you can sort of get like a feel for tattooing in terms of how the machine handled. Like it's really light. The vibration is super low, so it was great to use. Like it didn't hurt my hand. It's not fatigued at all. And the power supply is decent. When you turn up the vault, the voltage is super consistent. Doesn't kind of like cut in and out. Like some of the cheaper machines do in terms of the noise. It's actually a really quiet machine, especially when you got it, like on the lower Vols, below five volts, it's really silent. 

Even when you turn it up to like, you know, say eight volts, it's still pretty silent. Like it does hum a bit, but it's not like a cord machine where it kind of blasts your out, you know, in terms of price, I, would it give it a nine just cuz $126 is super cheap for an entire tattooing setup.   you know, you get pretty much everything you need except for like a wash bottle. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Like everything else, you get inks needles machines, you only get one clip sleeve and one set of gloves. Uh, so, uh, you can't reuse those, but it's, it's kind of more intended sort of skin, this sort of machine. Could you use it on real skin? Definitely. But you know, I'd highly recommend, you know, swapping out the, the inks and the needles and stuff. Like once you've had a few runs on practice skin, you upgrade your materials and you could still probably use the machine. 

Now the quality, I'd probably say a five, the machine's decent. It can do a little bit of everything, uh, which is good. And you know, it feels is kind of nice and, and heavy. Like it's a nice, it's like, there's a lot of, it's not all plastic, like some of the really cheap stuff. Uh, it hits nice and soft. It, it shades quite well. It does a little bit of lining, a little bit of packing, but the inks were terrible. Fake skin was terrible and you know, the needle cartridges again, they had that kind of weird rattling when, when I was tattooing with them. So kind of, weren't my favorite. You also the, uh, the power supply and you know, the foot pedal, they got a lot of plastic in, they feel a little bit flimsy, uh, not sure how they would go, uh, kind of long term for long term use in terms of, uh, the handling. 

It was a, it was, it was an okay liner. It was a good shader, solid, it was great for getting the blacks. It hits nice and soft packing again kind of average. So if they handling, I I'd probably give this machine a six. I didn't like how, you know, the, the out control kind of just swivels. So sometimes when you turn the machine, it does change the depth of the machine, but this, this would be something that would be really kind of good for, for like black and gray work. You know, if you're doing some portraits and stuff like that, this would be really good for that. We kind of just avoid using, you know, liners and, and, and, you know, massive needle groupings all together and packing.   this would be great for that. So yeah, it's a pretty versatile machine, but it hasn't got a ton of power. 

It hits quite if I was really only good for mostly shaving, I wouldn't wanna use, you know, large needle groupings with this 14 liners, uh, things like that in terms of handling, I'd probably give this a six. So would I recommend getting this kit? It depends where you're at in your journey of tattooing, right? If, if you are kind of just getting started and you're not a hundred percent sure that, you know, this is a career that you wanna dive head first and, and be in for the rest of your life and you're still, you know, kind of on the fence about tattooing then yes, I definitely recommend getting this kit. Can you just kind of feel it out and just see if tattooing's for you without, uh, making a huge upfront investment. However, if you are dead serious about tattooing, you know, you wanna start working in clients, you wanna, you know, go into your own shop, you wanna own your own shop. 

Then you'll probably wanna get something a bit more premium than this kid. This is, this is more for, you know, super entry level people that aren't even sure whether or not they wanna do tattooing long term. So they can just kind of try it out in a bit of practice and have a bit of fun and just sort of see what it's like. That's great for those people. But yeah, if you, if you are looking to, you know, start working in the shop or start your own shop, you wanna, uh, you know, invest a bit more and, and get kind of a more premium sort of set up if that's sounds like it's for you. I'll leave the link to the kit on the wormhole tattoo supply website just below this video. Yeah. That's pretty much it. I will see you in the next kit review, talk soon.