Salvage Supplies started in July 2020, but the story really began a few months earlier.
In February 2020, I opened a tattoo studio. Being on the other side of the counter gave me a very different view of the tattoo supply industry. I started looking closely at the cost of importing products compared to the prices artists were being expected to pay.
The discrepancy was difficult to ignore. In some cases, I was seeing mark-ups of 600% to 800%.
I didn’t think that was fair.
Tattoo artists already carry the costs of running a studio, building a reputation and perfecting a craft that takes years to master. Excessive supply costs simply make it harder for good artists to stay in business.
Our first product was tattoo needles.
I had a slightly strange idea for the Salvage product range: a solar system. Each product would be connected to a planet, or something within our universe, with its own identity and its own reason for existing.
Naturally, we started with Pluto.
Yes, some people say Pluto isn’t a planet. Nobody consulted me. It’s still a planet.
But Pluto also represented something else. It was the little guy. Overlooked, underestimated and sitting on the outside. That felt appropriate.
Salvage was the little guy taking on the giants.
From Pluto, our universe started expanding.
Venus became our permanent makeup range.
Jupiter became our gloves. Jupiter envelops and surrounds, much like a glove envelops your hand.
Saturn, with its rings, became our wraps. A product designed to wrap around and protect your tattoo machine.
Mars was intended for our tattoo machines. There may or may not have been a slightly phallic joke involved in choosing a planet for a cylindrical tattoo machine.
We’ll leave that there.
Mercury became our second skin, the first barrier against the sun.
Neptune became associated with our larger tattoo needles. Neptune is believed to rain diamonds.
Diamonds. Sharp edges. It made sense in my head.
Then came our wipes.
For those, we chose the Nebula.
Anyone who has worked in a tattoo studio knows what happens to a wipe during a tattoo. Ink, colour and fluid are absorbed into it, creating these completely random, abstract patterns.
Different colours bleeding into one another. No two ever quite looking the same.
It reminded me of the clouds of colour and dust in a nebula.
So Nebula Wipes joined the Salvage universe.
As for Uranus… We’re still waiting for the right product. I’m sure it’ll come to us.
As Salvage grew, another opportunity came along.
Tattoo Essentials had developed some genuinely amazing products. The products weren’t the problem. The business had simply lost its way.
I saw value in what had been created and didn’t believe good products should disappear because the company behind them hadn’t worked out.
So, we acquired the product range. We brought it into Salvage, reworked it and gave the products a new home.
That acquisition allowed us to expand beyond equipment and consumables and into products specifically developed around the tattoo process.
One of those products is Stencil Shiz. I believed it to be world-class.
The name was suggested by my daughter when she was ten years old. I thought it was funny. The name stayed.
Today, it forms part of our Salvage product range.
We also expanded into professional studio hygiene and cleaning products, including skin disinfectants, surface disinfectants and SAP32, a fluid-absorbing polymer designed to solidify liquid waste, helping make disposal cleaner, easier and more hygienic.
The range also includes our Tattoo Glide, developed to provide lubrication and support the skin throughout the tattoo process.
And then there’s Natural Numb.
Rather than using lignocaine, lidocaine, tetracaine or benzocaine, Natural Numb uses a clove formulation containing clove bud.
It was another example of the way we approach products.
Look at what already exists. Question it. And ask whether there is another way to do it.
What started with tattoo needles slowly became something much bigger.
Needles. Gloves. Wraps. Tattoo machines. Second skin. Wipes. Permanent makeup products. Tattoo inks. Stencil products. Studio hygiene. Skin preparation. Tattoo glides. And a growing range of professional tattoo supplies.
But the reason behind Salvage has never changed.
Fair pricing. Quality products. And a genuine responsibility to the artists who keep this industry alive.
Our goal isn’t to be the cheapest at any cost.
Our goal is to offer professional tattoo artists quality products at prices that we believe represent fair value.
Because every rand an artist doesn’t unnecessarily spend on supplies is money that can stay in their studio.
It can pay the rent. Replace equipment. Invest in training. Or simply make it a little easier for another artist to stay in business.
I love tattooing.
I love the artists.
And I love the fact that this industry gives people a way to turn creativity into a living.
If Salvage can challenge unfair pricing, save an artist a little money and help more talented people stay behind their machines…
Then we’re doing what we started Salvage to do.
Support the artists. Challenge the giants. Keep the art alive.
— Robert Basson
Founder, Salvage Supplies