Best Laptops For Tattoo Artists – Reviews

Are you a tattoo artist looking to buy a new laptop?

Well, you are in the right place.

We have done hours and hours of research to find the best laptops for tattoo artists so that you don’t have to.

Finding the perfect laptop for your needs in a sea of laptops can be arduous, and we have saved you all that trouble.

Let’s dive into the best laptops for tattoo design without wasting any more time.

Best Laptops For Tattoo Design

Take a look at our top picks:

• Microsoft Surface Pro 7 – Editor’s Choice
• Apple iPad Pro – Runner Up
• Lenovo Flex 14 – Budget Pick

1. Surface Pro 7 – Editor’s Choice

Our Editor’s Choice for the best laptop for tattoo artists is the Microsoft Surface Pro 7.

This is Microsoft’s flagship project and brings many excellent features for professionals like tattoo artists. Once you detach the keyboard from the laptop, you have a fully functional tablet that is perfect for designing tattoos.

The first thing you’ll notice about this Surface Pro 7 model’s display. We have a 12.3-inch touchscreen display that comes with Pixel Sense resolution. This resolution is made up of 3200 x 1800 pixels which is a lot of pixels on a 12.3-inch display.

The pixel density on display is off the charts, resulting in extremely sharp images and text. The picture quality is brilliant, and you will love watching TV shows and movies on this display. Be it Netflix or Prime Video; you will have your share of fun with this display.

The touchscreen on this display is very sensitive and offers almost zero lag to an active stylus. This means drawing on this laptop is as good as drawing on a professional drawing tablet from Wacom.

The Surface Pro 7 weighs just 1.7 lbs making it one of the most portable laptops. You can take this laptop in your backpack, and travel like nothing has changed.

Considering the high-resolution display, it is a surprise that this laptop has the best battery life. With light use, you will get around 10.5 hours of battery life which is super good. Even when you are continuously drawing tattoos, you will still be able to get around 6 to 8 hours of battery life which is fantastic.

The Surface Pro 7 is powered by a 10th-generation Intel core processor. This i5 processor from Intel comes with a maximum clock speed of 3.5 GHz. This is a powerful processor and can handle some heavy lifting without any hiccups.

The memory department on this laptop is filled with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. This is a good amount of RAM for tattoo artists and should be the bare minimum for effective performance. You can opt for more memory if you plan to work with complex software and with tons of layers.

For storage, we have a 256 GB SSD. This solid-state drive is high-speed and complements the processor and the memory in its own way. The operating system boots up in seconds, and you can feel a snappy performance all the time when using the laptop.

We do not have a dedicated graphics card in this surface pro model. But the Intel Iris graphics does a pretty good job handling graphics-intensive applications. Unless you are a gamer, we don’t see how this is the problem.

Overall, the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 seven is an excellent laptop that converts into a tablet and offers an interior user interface for tattoo designing, Making it the best laptop for tattoo artists in 2022.

2. Apple iPad Pro – Runner Up

We know that we were planning on talking about laptops, but this one is an exception you have to look at.

The best Apple device for tattoo artists is the new Apple iPad Pro 12.9“.

The iPad Pro offers the best user experience for tattoo artists, including laptops. If you have the Apple Pencil, you’re all set to design your tattoos with one of the best hardware.

The display on the iPad is nothing short of extraordinary. We have a 12.9-inch edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display that comes with promotion, True tone, and wide color.

This is one of the brightest displays, with a maximum brightness of 600 nits. The colors on this display are vibrant and are very much true to life, thanks to the true tone technology. You get excellent viewing angles that are perfect for working on tattoos.

The display is perfect for drawing on it. It comes with almost zero lag which is very hard to achieve. With the Apple Pencil, you can create some excellent illustrations and tattoos if you are a creative person. Do you have to get the Apple Pencil separately? It is an investment that will pay back for itself multiple times.

The iPad Pro is as powerful as some high-performance laptops. It comes with an A12Z Bionic chip with a neural engine and has proven to be one of the most powerful mobile processors. It can easily handle any application you throw at it and gives you the best performance on any tablet.

Though Apple doesn’t disclose how much ram is in the memory department, memory management on iPads has always been excellent. This new iPad Pro also comes with similar memory management, which means many apps are in memory without getting refreshed often.

Another good thing but this iPad Pro is that you get two cameras at the back. You have a 12 MP wide camera and a 10 MP ultrawide camera. In addition to these camera modules, you also get a leader scanner which plays a significant role in augmented reality.

Good cameras allow you to take pictures of whatever design you come across, and you can work on it later at your leisure. You can also take photos of client status in a flash without searching for your phone.

The iPad Pro comes with one of the best battery life you can get on a mobile device. With regular use, the iPad Pro will last about 12 hours which is crazy. Even when working on illustrations and tattoo designing, the iPad Pro will still last you for about 6 to 8 hours which is more than extraordinary.

The iPad Pro comes with WiFi 6, giving you super-high internet speeds. A USB-type C port connects external devices directly to your iPad.

Overall, the iPad Pro is not a laptop by any means but powerful enough to replace one for a tattoo artist, making it the best tablet for tattoo artists.

3. Lenovo Flex 14 – Budget Pick

Under a price tag of $500, the Lenovo Flex 14 is the best bet for tattoo design. You get a touchscreen, a decent processor, and other hardware that will make your life easier while working on tattoos.

Since this is a budget laptop, we will see many compromises along the way. But you are really stuck on a shoestring budget. In that case, there should not be anything that stops you from achieving your dream as a tattoo artist, which is why we have included this laptop, even though it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements of specific criteria.

The display we have here is a 14-inch HD display. It has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels which is not bad. This is better than a full HD display, but it works and gets the job done. It comes to a maximum brightness of 220 nits which could be better, and you are better off working indoors.

Being a touchscreen, it comes with enough responsiveness to handle illustrations and tattoo design. There is a bit of a lag, but it shouldn’t be a problem, especially at this price point.

The processor that powers this Lenovo flex laptop is an Intel Core i3 processor from the eighth generation. This is a pretty good entry-level processor from Intel, and that’s why when it comes to handling your everyday activities.

There are 4 GB of RAM and the memory department, and they allow you to multitask without any issues. You can upgrade this to 8 GB if you can afford it, and we suggest you do it as it will give you more memory to play with.

The storage here is a 128GB NVME solid-state drive. Even though this is a budget laptop, Lenovo has included a super-fast solid-state drive that plays a crucial role in improving performance of this laptop. The SSD makes up for lost performances from other hardware as well.

For graphics, we have an Intel UHD graphics 620 graphics card. This is not a dedicated graphics card, but it does well when it comes to handling graphics-rich applications daily. You also can run a few mid-range games without having to settings.

The battery life is one of the best selling points of the Lenovo Flex 14. With light use, you can squeeze eight hours into this fantastic laptop. Also, with quick recharge technology, you can quickly power up the laptop to 80% of its battery capacity.

The Lenovo Flex 14 comes with a horde of connectivity options. You get a USB type C port, a couple of USB 3.1 Type-A ports, an HDMI port, an audio jack, and a card reader. The laptop comes with support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity as well.

Overall, Lenovo flex 14 is a cheap two-in-one laptop that is a good bet for tattoo artists on a budget. You can design tattoos on this thing without spending a massive amount of money on a laptop, making this an attractive option.

What To Look For In The Best Laptop For Tattoo Artist?

When it comes to designing tattoos, there is more than one way to go digital.

You can go for a laptop that comes with a touchscreen, or you can go for a tablet that is perfect for the tattoo design, or you can also go for a combination of a standard laptop and a drawing tablet without a display.
Since you’re here, we will assume that you are in search of a laptop that can help take your tattoo design to the next level.

Before you take your card out and pay for your next laptop, I need to ensure that the laptop fulfills certain criteria so that you know that you are getting the best bang for your buck.

Display

The display is probably the most important thing on the laptop regarding the tattoo design.

You have to be careful about a few key areas when choosing the right display. The first and foremost thing is that your display should have at least full HD resolution.

Having at least full HD resolution ensures that the picture is sharp and on point. Anything less than that could leave you with a blurry image that could negatively impact your tattoo design.

If possible, you should go for a Quad HD display or even an ultra HD display, as they come with many pixels and will give you the sharpest image possible on smaller display sizes.

Make sure the display comes with an IPS panel underneath. An IPS panel gives you superior picture quality and gives you the best viewing angles. For a laptop that is primarily meant for designing tattoos, viewing angles play a significant role.

Another key inclusion you must make sure of is a touchscreen. A touchscreen is necessary as you will be drawing all your tattoos on a touchscreen. Confirm that the laptop can be folded into tablet mode so that drying on it becomes easier.

If the laptop comes with a touchscreen but cannot be folded into tablet mode, it is pretty much useless, as drawing on that laptop will be a shaky experience.

The size of the display is more of a personal preference. Most 2-in-1 laptops come in a 13.3-inch chassis. There are bigger laptops with a touchscreen, but handling them might be a little more complex than you can imagine.

If you ask us, we recommend going with a 13.3-inch laptop, as it gives you both portability And a better form factor to work with.

Processing Power

When it comes to tattoo design, it is always safe to go the laptop
that has at least a decent amount of processing power.

We would suggest going with at least a quad-core processor as it gives you enough power to deal with designing and will stay relevant for years to come. If you can afford it, we suggest using a Hexa core processor, depending on the complexity of tattoo designing.

If you are on a tight budget, then you can go with a dual-core processor but be warned that there will be bottlenecks if you work on complex projects.

In simple terms, go with a quad-core Intel processor with a decent bass frequency and can utilize the Turbo boost to reach a maximum clock speed of upwards of 3.5 GHz.

You can also go with an equivalent AMD processor as they are much cheaper and will give you more or less the same performance.

Regarding memory, you need at least 8 GB of RAM on your laptop. This is like the bare minimum for tattoo designing, as anything less than that could slow down the creative process.

Storage

Storage is another important area you should focus on.

If you won’t need a large amount of storage space on your laptop, getting an SSD is very important. A solid-state drive brings a huge performance boost and can change your work.

The storage capacity of 256 GB should be more than enough for the best tattoo artists. We recommend backing up all your work with a reliable cloud service.

Avoid picking up a hard disk drive as a storage option at any cost. These are mechanical hard drives and are very slow when compared with SSDs. They can bring your performance down and make your life very difficult.

Since hard disk drives are very cheap, you can get them as an external storage devices. They can be used for backing up your current work and can also be used as an external server for storing your data.

Graphics

Most tattoo artists will be fine with an integrated graphics card.

If designing simple tattoos makes most of your workflow, you should be OK with an integrated graphics card like the Intel HD graphics.

If you work on complex tattoos, you will need a graphics card that can handle multiple layers and other complex requirements. Even in this case, we do not recommend wasting much money on high-end graphics cards.

A mid-range graphics card will be more than enough to handle even complex tattoo designs. Something like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 will do just fine.

Battery Life

Battery life is another important aspect of a laptop for tattoo design.

Whether you work in your studio or while you are on the run, you need a laptop that comes with excellent battery life. Ideally, we recommend going for a laptop with all-day battery life.

Even if you can’t get a laptop with all the battery life, we recommend going for a laptop that lasts at least 6 to 8 hours.

All the recommendations mentioned above come with a decent battery life, depending on the price.

Portability And Form Factor

For a laptop that you will be holding in your hands, for the most part, we think that portability is an essential aspect.

Portability is the only reason we pick laptops with a screen size of 13.3 inches or less. With a portable laptop, you can easily carry them around and work on them while you’re traveling or outside, enjoying some wind on your face.

Finding the right form factor for your laptop can also be crucial in determining the effectiveness of tattoo design. A laptop with a touchscreen that falls into tablet mode is much better than a laptop with a touchscreen but does not have a tablet mode.

If you need the best portability, we recommend going with a high-power tablet like the iPad Pro, as it gives you the best user interface for tattoo design while offering a highly portable solution.

Budget

The budget, of course, plays a crucial role in deciding the best laptop for your needs.

If you can afford it, we recommend going for a high-end, high-performance laptop that converts into a tablet. We say this because getting a good laptop in the beginning will ensure that your work does not get disrupted at a later stage.

But that doesn’t mean people on a budget cannot design tattoos on their laptops. This is precisely why we have included a section called the best budget laptop for tattoo artists.

If you’re on a shoestring budget, get a laptop with a touchscreen, and don’t worry about anything else. You have to start with something which will get you off the mark.

Conclusion

That’s the end of this post.

If you want a laptop to design tattoos, we hope you can provide some help in making a good decision.

If you are still trying to decide which laptop to get for designing tattoos, feel free to contact us. We will hear you out personally and help you select the best laptop for your needs.