Yes, you can legally buy a tattoo gun in the United States if you’re an adult. No federal law restricts who can purchase a tattoo machine, needles, or ink for personal ownership, and you don’t need a license or permit to have the equipment in your home. The legal problem starts when you use it on another person: most states require a license to tattoo someone else, and doing it without one is a criminal offense.
Who Can Buy a Tattoo Machine
The federal government does not regulate the sale of tattoo equipment. Unlike firearms or prescription medical devices, tattoo machines fall outside any federal purchasing restriction. You can order a complete kit online and have it delivered without showing ID, holding a license, or filing paperwork with any agency.
State and local governments occasionally pass laws touching tattoo-related commerce, but these almost always target the act of tattooing rather than equipment ownership. A handful of jurisdictions have looked at restricting sales of tattoo paraphernalia to minors, but those laws are uncommon and inconsistently enforced.
Retailer policies are a different matter. Many online tattoo supply companies voluntarily require buyers to be at least 18, and some set the threshold at 21. Those are business policies, not legal mandates in most cases. If you’re under 18 and the retailer sells to you, no law is generally being broken on the purchase side. The legal risk for a minor comes from what happens after: at least 45 states have laws restricting or outright banning tattoos on minors, and roughly 38 of those allow tattooing minors only with parental consent. Those statutes target the person performing and receiving the tattoo, not the sale of the machine.
Ink Is the One Piece the FDA Touches
The federal government stays out of equipment sales, but the FDA does have authority over tattoo inks. The agency classifies tattoo inks as cosmetics and their pigments as color additives subject to premarket approval. In practice, no color additive is actually approved for injection into the skin, and the FDA has historically declined to enforce this requirement against manufacturers.1U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tattoos and Permanent Makeup: Fact Sheet
That regulatory gap matters for buyers. Many pigments sold as tattoo ink aren’t approved for skin contact at all, and some are industrial colorants intended for printer ink or automotive paint. The FDA has also issued recalls when specific products tested positive for bacterial contamination, including a 2025 advisory warning consumers and artists to avoid certain inks contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that can cause serious skin infections when injected.2U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Advises Consumers, Tattoo Artists, and Retailers to Avoid Using or Selling Certain Sacred Tattoo Ink Products Contaminated with Microorganisms Nobody is pre-screening the ink you buy online for safety. Checking the FDA’s recall database before using any ink is one of the few protections available to buyers.
What You Can Legally Do With It
Owning the machine is legal almost everywhere. What you do with it decides the rest.
Tattooing Yourself
No state specifically criminalizes an adult tattooing their own body. State licensing statutes are written to address performing tattoos on other people, so practicing on your own skin is legally permissible in essentially every jurisdiction. That is the legal picture, not the safety picture. Without training, self-tattooing carries real risks: infection from non-sterile equipment, scarring from incorrect needle depth, allergic reactions to untested inks, and permanent results from an unsteady hand.
Tattooing Someone Else
The moment you put ink into another person’s skin, you’ve crossed from unregulated equipment ownership into a heavily regulated professional activity. The vast majority of states require tattoo artists to hold some form of license, permit, or registration before they can legally tattoo another person. Some states issue licenses through their health department, others require registration with a local enforcement agency, and a few regulate tattooing through their cosmetology boards. The common thread is that tattooing someone else without the proper credential violates state law, even if you’re doing it for free in your kitchen.
This is where hobbyists most often get into trouble: they buy a kit, practice on themselves, then start tattooing friends. That last step is the illegal one in most states.
What Getting Licensed Actually Involves
Requirements differ by state, but you’ll encounter some combination of the following:
- Bloodborne pathogen training. Nearly every state requires it, and OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard requires employers in the tattoo industry to provide it to employees with occupational exposure to blood.3Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 1910.1030 – Bloodborne Pathogens
- Proof of Hepatitis B vaccination, or a signed declination form.4Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Applicability of the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to the Tattoo and Body Piercing Industries
- A supervised apprenticeship under a licensed professional, often lasting one to three years, in a number of states.
- Minimum age of 18 for the license itself.
- Application fees for individual artists, typically ranging from roughly $175 to over $600 depending on the state. Studio permits carry additional costs.
- CPR or first aid certification in some jurisdictions.
OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard applies specifically to employer-employee relationships. A sole proprietor with no employees isn’t technically covered by OSHA, though state licensing laws usually impose the same training requirements independently.5Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Obligations of Establishments That Provide Tattoos and Body Piercing
Penalties for Tattooing Without a License
Tattooing another person without the required license is a criminal offense in most states. The charge is typically a misdemeanor, with penalties running from fines of a few hundred dollars up to a year in jail. Some states classify it as a Class A or Class B misdemeanor depending on the circumstances. Repeat offenses raise the exposure.
Tattooing a minor carries harsher consequences. In states that ban it outright, even parental consent provides no defense. In states that allow it with parental consent, strict documentation requirements apply, and missing any step can turn the tattoo into a criminal act. Penalties are steeper than for simply operating without a license and may include separate charges for each minor tattooed.
Civil exposure is the other half of the picture. If someone develops an infection, scarring, or an allergic reaction from a tattoo you performed, they can sue for negligence. Operating without a license makes that lawsuit significantly harder to defend, because you’ve already fallen below the basic standard of care a court would expect. Unlicensed operators also don’t carry the professional liability insurance that licensed studios have, so any judgment comes out of your own pocket.
Buying Equipment Worth Trusting
Tattoo machines, needles, inks, and accessories are widely available through online retailers, dedicated tattoo supply companies, and some general art supply stores. Coil, rotary, and pen-style machines come at a wide range of price points. The low barrier to purchase is exactly why equipment quality deserves attention.
Cheap machines from unverified sellers can pose real safety problems. Equipment that lets ink or blood travel back into the motor creates cross-contamination risks that no amount of surface cleaning fixes. Machines built from porous materials can’t be properly disinfected between uses. Low-quality power supplies may deliver inconsistent voltage, causing uneven needle depth that leads to scarring or blowouts. Buying from an established tattoo supply company with verifiable reviews is worth the price difference, especially if you plan to use the equipment on yourself or eventually pursue a professional license.