Best tattooing tools? : Show Rabbits

I am wanting to show Mini Lops and I have this beautiful buck that I just need to tattoo before I show. What brands types do y'all recommend? Do you prefer the clamps or the pens? What are the pros and cons of the two?

Thanks!

100% pens for me!!
I've used both types.
My pen pros:

1: Pens are MUCH MUCH less painful to the rabbit than clamps are, IF used correctly. Not saying a ham-fisted person couldn't mess that up, but in general, if you have a light touch and know what you're doing, the buns come away thinking you just had a bonding session with a little over-enthusiastic grooming. I've had buns crawl up on me and lick my face immediately after a tattoo. Rabbit ears are super thin, and require hardly any pressure at all to leave good clean lines that stay. MUCH less depth of penetration than most human skin. I don't even burrito the kits anymore when tattooing. The small flinches I occasionally see just tell me when I've been a little too heavy handed and need to ease up.

2: Cleaner lines. Bad handwriting can mess this up too, of course, but in general, pens leave much cleaner and easier to read letters and numbers than the dot letter/number clamps I've personally seen and used.

3: You can use a pen to do a small touch up on a fading or old tattoo at any time with little discomfort to the rabbit.

3: Pens are lightweight and easy for this little lady to use.


The downside would be:

1: replacing needles and batteries.

Now for clamps, I do have a few pros.

1: Sometimes people with a hard time regulating the pressure they use, a limited range of motion, or shaking hands (among other reasons) can prefer a clamp.

2: Also people in big commercial rabbitrys sometimes prefer clamps because it's a one and done, next bunny, type scenario, instead of the focus and individual attention required to pen out each tattoo. If you have to get through dozens or hundred of animals, clamps can be easier.

As for brands, I can't remember the clamps because I was just helping others with the process.
For pens, I only have my cheapo kbtatts modified-electric-tooth-brush pen. It works well enough, so I've never upgraded. I actually have professional tattoo equipment for humans, but using that would be more than a little overkill for bunny ears.

check out tattoo kits here:
https://www.allthingsbunnies.com/TB-Tat ... tat232.htm
this is what I use and just tattooed my doe yesterday in like 5 minutes. No pain, no stress!

I've only tried the clamp type and it doesn't always seem to make enough dots to make a legible tat. If one or two dots don't 'take' then the whole tat becomes somewhat illegible. Is that a "0" or is that an "8" sorta thing. The clamp will make holes all the way through the ear and then the ink has to be gotten into the holes or the whole thing is futile. I've been putting the ink on the clamp and then brushing more on afterwards with those stiff bristled brushes. The bunnies don't like tats at all with this method. I've only been tatting the ones who could be confused such as multiples of the same color and gender. However, we don't have bunny shows around here so the tats aren't necessary for showing, just keeping track of who is who.

Have you a recommendation for brand of pen to get, Zass? Anyone else? What sort of things should be considered when getting a tattoo pen?

Mine's a TB tat pen, it was recommended to me by many other breeders, and I bought it on amazon with a tat kit with numbing spray, ink wells, a marker, extra needles, ink, and a handy dandy bag for everything! Only about 70 USD
https://www.amazon.com/All-Things-Bunni ... r=8-6&th=1

Mine was a KBtatts, https://kbtatts.weebly.com/

I'm not sure how it stacks up to other models? If I buy a new one, I think I'll try another brand just to see.

Does it have a vibrating tip? Battery operated?

There's a lot of 'permanent make-up' tattoo pens out there, they have a variety of tips as well as lots of different colors of inks. Would that work as a bunny tattoo pen?

Hotzcatz, what an interesting idea!! It's certainly worth trying out if someone has one. Rabbit ears DO tattoo really easily.

The cosmetic tattoo pens seem to be less expensive than the official bunny tat pens, although basically, a tattoo pen is just something that pierces the skin so ink can be pushed in, isn't it? Not sure if the cosmetic ones actually inject ink or not.