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An at-home tattoo kit available to anyone shopping online, regardless of age, has been removed from the BIG W website after a public outcry.

The Beginner Tattoo Kit Set was on sale for $111, and included tattoo tips, ink and a tattoo machine, and carried no warnings about age restrictions. In Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland it’s illegal for anyone under 18 to be tattooed. In South Australia it’s also illegal to use a DIY tattoo kit on anyone under 18.

The discovery of the unusual product sent the internet into a spin, with a reddit thread attracting hundreds of angry comments.

“I can only imagine the horror of a 14yo boy buying one of these and trying it out on his 10yo sister,” one person commented.

Others took to Facebook to voice their concern.

“If anyone out there knows anything about the tattoo industry they would know the laws around this. This is so dangerous!!!! This is NOT fun and games at all. I’m so glad that this product has been removed from the shelf,” wrote Margaret Fogarty.

So how did a relatively cheap DIY tattoo kit end up for sale online at BIG W?

According to a BIG W spokesperson, the kit was uploaded onto the retail giant’s marketplace.

“BIG W Market is a marketplace for trusted third-party sellers on the BIG W website,” the spokesperson said.

“The tattoo kit was recently listed on BIG W Market and we acknowledge this product was not categorised correctly.

“We can confirm we have removed it from sale, and no orders have been fulfilled.”

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  • I’m so glad these were removed from sale. I don’t like tattoos on people especially when they cover their body.

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  • Pleased it has been removed from sale – cannot stand tattoos on people.


    • I often wonder how much money is going into tattoo’s and then to think about how many people struggle financially…

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  • Wow! That was a huge miss from Big W.

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  • Definitely glad this has been removed from sale!

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  • BigW never should have added this to their assortment


    • ….which is equal to promoting the production of this item

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  • Seriously, what were they thinking?! People who didn’t know what they were doing could do serious damage!

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  • What a shocker.. love to know how they got onto shelves in the first place..

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  • Here I thought BigW was family friendly…

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  • Big W another big store that looks after us

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  • This is so bizarre it made it all the way to being advertised? Like what were they thinking

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  • I’m rather surprised Big W doesn’t have a screening process which stopped this going up.


    • I agree and I think it’s even shocking that this item was produced !

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  • l am aghast. To be fair, if a fourteen year old got their hands on one, that is their parents’ fault.

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  • This move has saved a lot of potential bad decisions by people who decide to get a tattoo on a whim when they are possibly drinking alcohol and someone has a tattoo machine at their house. I’ve seen viral videos of people that wrongly spell words for tattoos just for a laugh.


    • Tattoos do need to be planned and a trained tattooist employed.

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  • Luckily BigW removed it from sale. That’s so weird that it ended up for sale. Definitely not right.

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  • I think this is the best move as they shouldn’t have even been available to the general public to start with!

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  • Wow, how weird that these would be sold to the general public!

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  • Oh my goodness, that’s shocking !!

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  • It’s sad that any general shops would have them. They are out there though and so are the customers.

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  • Tattooists are trained artists and expertise, skill and hygiene is essential when tattooing bodies. A wise move to remove this kit from general sale.

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  • Whoa! This could have caused a whole lot of trouble.

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