present for girlfriend

My girlfriend is a budding tattoo artist, and i want to get her the perfect present not only that shows her i support her career choice but im allways going to help her get to her dream. so i was thinking about getting a tattoo gun and getting it engraved, but my problem is that ( i dont know anything about tattoos) alot of the guns hardly have anyroom that can have things engraved onto it, any ideas people? it would really help :)

Yeah for sure . Tons of ideas. She wants to be a tattoo artist. Don't get her a tattoo MACHINE. Get her art supplies. Maybe some kick ass books, more than a few people here can point you towards what would be worth spending your money on. Maybe some custom flash sheets from one of her favorite artists. If you don't know the name of any of her favorites just buy some flash sets that include alot of styles she likes. i.e. japanese, portraits, tribal, color, black and grey. Stuff like that. Buy her tickets to an upcoming tattoo convention maybe. Build her a webpage to showcase her artwork. Or ,and this would be really cool, get her a real nice portfolio case to protect her work. Not too mention she's going to need it if she's searching out an apprenticeship. But don't get her a tattoo machine , that's a real good way to get her started on the wrong foot.

Hmm... maybe get her Guy Aitchison's book instead [which I am not sure if i can post the name of it here, so I'll let Gabe decide if it should be mentioned in this forum or not- sorry] or perhaps some rockin' tattoo reference materials? In the long run these will be far more useful to a young artist. Good luck!

It isnt for her use untill shes fully qualified, i want it to be a symbol to show her that im going to support her following her dreams and that she shouldnt give up on them. does anyone have any ideas of certain tattoo guns with a solid blank side on any side, not particularly bothered with that, just need one with enough space for the message

Don't do it!! Listen to Princess Jer....art supplies and books....thats the best stuff you could give her at this point

If shes not tattooing now I would get her a machine. Chances are if you just get one it wont be what she needs anyways. There are a lot of art books that tattoo artists are self publishing thesedays, art art art.

IT WON'T BE WHAT SHE NEEDS like Gabe said. There's a million and more different tattoo machine manufacturers out there. The majority of the machines you're even capable of getting your hands on aren't going to be worth a damn to begin with. And the best of the best machines are specifically tuned towards each artists liking and styles. Something she just doesn't have at this point in her career. If you're hellbent on supporting the woman's dreams, get her something useful she'll be able to use for along long time to come. Maybe a lightbox( i'm still waiting on mine) , maybe some signed flash sheets that'd be cool, or get real unique and send in some of her artwork to like flash magazine or hell any magazine that features the art of upcoming and struggling artists. If it gets published i'm sure she'd like to hang onto that. But all in all if your lady is gonna do it,and do it properly, she'd probably appreciate some really great referrence material type books. Maybe even some tattoo history books.

oh another thing, dude alot of the really really kick ass high end machines out there, aren't very appealing to the eye at all lol. They're not shiny and pretty, they're dull and almost awkward looking. Just get a tattoo of a tattoo machine and tell her it's for her screw it. Then look up some great cover up artists in your area after she leaves you for the tattooed guy that will be teaching her and spending at least ten hours a day with for maybe 3 years or more lol. Or buy her a damn book.

hmmm, is the machine really for your girlfiend?