Tattoo studios are a small-ticket, soft asset sector, so the shape of the deal matters more here than the kit on the invoice.
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Sometimes, and it is worth being straight about why it is difficult. Tattoo studio equipment is low value per item, easily moved and has almost no recoverable worth to a funder, so machines and power supplies on their own will rarely reach a minimum advance or clear credit. What does get funded is a studio-level package: client chairs, workstations, sterilisation equipment, extraction and reception furniture bought together during a fit-out. Used equipment is difficult to place. The thing that catches applicants out is that funders assess the studio company and the director, and many studios trade with thin filed accounts.
Used kit: Rarely — used tattoo equipment has almost no funder value, and applications for second-hand studio kit are generally declined outside a wider fit-out package.
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Business asset finance is quoted on a flat rate, so that is what this shows — with the equivalent APR underneath, because the two are not the same number. A quick guide only; your actual rate depends on the asset, term, deposit and lender.
Representative example: on Hire Purchase, borrowing £25,000 over 48 months at a 6.0% flat rate (equivalent to 11.5% APR representative), you would repay around £646 a month; total amount repayable approximately £31,000, of which £6,000 is the cost of finance. This calculator is for illustration only — it is not a quote or an offer of finance, and the rate and repayments you are offered will depend on the asset, term, deposit and your circumstances. CW Asset Finance is a credit broker, not a lender, and may receive a commission from the lender that funds your agreement. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval. CW Asset Finance is an Appointed Representative of Rural Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630701).
This is the far end of soft asset territory and honesty serves clients better than optimism. Individual tattoo machines, power supplies and needles are consumable-grade items with no funder value at all. Client chairs and autoclaves have a little more substance, but a used studio chair is not an asset anyone plans to recover from a first-floor shop in a town centre. So the whole case rests on the company and the director: filed accounts, banking, personal credit and a guarantee. Many studios also carry a high cash mix, which makes turnover harder to evidence. Where a workable deal exists, it is usually a fit-out package with a sensible total placed with a funder that already understands small independent retail rather than a machine-by-machine list.
Examples of the machines we are asked to fund. This is not an exhaustive list — if what you are buying is not here, it does not mean we cannot fund it. Your supplier quote is what the agreement is written against.
| Machine | What it is |
|---|---|
| TatSoul 370-S client chair | Reclining tattoo client chair |
| TatSoul X3 artist stool | Adjustable artist working stool |
| Cheyenne Sol Nova Unlimited | Wireless rotary tattoo machine |
| Cheyenne Hawk Pen | Pen style rotary tattoo machine |
| FK Irons Flux Max | Wireless rotary tattoo machine |
| FK Irons Spektra Xion | Adjustable stroke rotary machine |
| Melag Vacuklav 24B autoclave | Vacuum steam steriliser |
| SciCan Statim 5000 autoclave | Fast cassette steriliser |
| BOFA AD Oracle extraction unit | Studio fume and particle extraction |
| Studio stencil printer and workstation | Stencil printing and prep station |
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Usually an established artist opening their own studio after years working in someone else’s, or a studio expanding from two booths to four. Piercing and permanent make-up businesses fitting out a treatment room fall into the same bracket. The trigger is commonly a lease being signed and the realisation that chairs, autoclaves and extraction all need buying at once.
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Bought on hire purchase, business plant and machinery normally qualifies for capital allowances on the full cost even though you pay for it monthly, which is a large part of why hire purchase is the common structure. On a finance lease you generally set the rentals against profit instead. The rules change between budgets and your position depends on how you trade, so treat this as the direction of travel and get your accountant to confirm the detail before you commit.
Realistically no. Machines and power supplies are too small and too portable for asset finance, and their resale value to a funder is negligible. Studios normally buy those from trading income. Finance becomes relevant at the fit-out level, where chairs, sterilisation, extraction and furniture are being bought together.
Some do list it as an excluded trade, usually for the same reasons as other cash-heavy, small-premises businesses rather than anything about tattooing itself. Others are perfectly comfortable. The practical effect is a smaller pool of funders, which makes going to the right ones first more important than usual.
It helps in the sense that it shows the studio is operating properly and has passed an inspection, and some funders will ask to see it. It does not change the credit assessment, which still turns on trading record and the director’s credit position. Have it available with your other paperwork.
Partitioning booths, flooring, plumbing and reception joinery can form part of a package, but understand that none of it is recoverable once installed in a rented unit. A funder lending against a fit-out is lending unsecured in practice, which is why the trading record and guarantee carry the whole decision.
It is very hard. A booth renter has no lease, no premises and often modest filed income, which leaves a funder with nothing to assess and nowhere to locate the asset. Most cases of this type are better served by saving for the purchase or by the studio owner financing it centrally.
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Not an offer of finance. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval.
Tell us what you’re looking to fund and Conor will come back to you personally — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07581 364281 · serving Leeds, York, Harrogate, Wakefield, Selby, Tadcaster & across North & West Yorkshire.
A decline from one lender reflects that lender’s appetite, not the whole market’s.