TrueLine: Find Tattooer-Owned Tattoo Supplies
Rue at Ruthless Irons and Carson Vester built a directory of tattooer-owned tattoo supplies, machine builders, and trade businesses worth supporting. Here's why it matters.
There's a web app I want to put on your radar: TrueLine Directory. It was built by Rue at Ruthless Irons and Carson Vester, two machinists and tattooers out of Houston, Texas. These are guys who build machines and tattoo for a living. Not a marketing team. Not a startup looking for an exit. Just people in the trade who saw a need and filled it.
The concept is straightforward. TrueLine lists tattooer-owned tattoo supplies, independent machine builders, and businesses that actually support tattooing as a craft. You search it, you find sources you can trust. That's it.
Why This Matters Right Now
If you've been paying attention over the last several decades, you've watched private equity start circling the tattoo supply industry. The playbook is not subtle: pour money into a supply company or platform, inflate the product line, saturate the market, then pull the capital back out once the margins thin. The craft takes the hit. Artists end up buying from brands that don't know the difference between a coil and a cartridge and frankly don't care, as long as the numbers look good for the next quarter.
Tattooing has always been a grassroots trade. It grew because people who loved it kept it alive, passed it hand to hand, built equipment in their garages, and opened shops in neighborhoods that didn't have them. That's not a nostalgic story. That's just how this works, and it's worth protecting.
TrueLine is a practical way to do that. When you spend money with a tattooer-owned supplier, you're keeping it in the trade. The person on the other end of that transaction is probably also tattooing and has a real opinion about what holds up and what doesn't.
Support the People in the Craft- Where to Find Tattooer Owned Tattoo Supplies
If you're an artist looking for supplies, machines, or gear, give truelinedirectory.com a look before you default to whatever's easiest. The directory covers:
Tattooer-owned tattoo supply companies
Independent machine builders
Trade businesses that support the craft over the bottom line
If you run a tattooer-owned business that should be listed, reach out to Rue and Carson and get yourself on it. This is the kind of thing that only works if people use it. Pass it along.
TrueLine is one of the better resources out there for finding tattooer owned tattoo supplies from people who actually use what they sell.
I build my own coil machines out of my studio in North Park. If you're curious about what goes into a handbuilt machine, you can read more about that on the tattoo machines page.
Chris Cockrill is a San Diego tattoo artist at Remington Tattoo in North Park, specializing in Japanese, American traditional, and black and grey tattooing. He has been tattooing since 1998 and builds custom coil tattoo machines out of his studio.