History of Tattoo Machines
Thomas Alva Edison is chiefly known as the inventor of
the phonograph in Newark, New Jersey, United States in 1876. It is
through this machine’s stylus or, call it, reader that Samuel O'Reilly made
modification and applied to inject dyes into the skin in 1891. He replaced the
stylus with a needle having a through hole and a small cylinder to supply it
with the dye. It employed rotary technology.
Hardly three weeks were over when London’s Thomas Riley
came up with a tattoo machine that employed electromagnetic principle in
operation. To be precise, it was just in twenty days that he patented
it. The electromagnet in the machine comprised single coil. It was
thus called single coil tattoo machine.
The modern two-coil electromagnetic tattoo machines got
there derivation from Alfred Charles Smith. He patented this machine in
1899. Because of its two coil system, it was heavy and it had to prop the
hand of tattooist by suspension. This relieved the hand and improved its
manipulation during its operation.
Current two-coil design in tattoo machines is but
adjustments to improve artistic precision to control needle pitch or depth,
speed, and exerted force. The number of coils up to 16 has been
attained. Still on improvement of the tattoo art, Carson Hill patented
pneumatic tattoo machine in the year 2000. The machine utilized a cushion of
air rather than electromagnetism or rotary technology. This machine runs
free from the noise or impact of arcing terminals at the make and break
contacts of the electromagnetic induction.
Rotary tattoo machine
This was the first tattoo machine by Samuel
O'Reilly. Rotary technology can be understood by basing our knowledge on
the pedestrian sewing machine. Here the rotary movement of the wheel is
converted to reciprocating motion by a crank as shown in a simple illustration
using the bold arrows (different colors have been used for clarity). This
gives the machine its name as rotary.
The high frequency of the machine, 12 000 jabs/minute
(200 Hz), is set through a compound train of wheels embedded with gears which
then eventually translate the motion to the crank. Despite rotary tattoo
machines being inferior to others, it has the advantage of being light. It can
therefore be manipulated easily. It can also be used as a liner and shader.
Coil tattoo machine
This machine is more superior to rotary type. The
first machine of the coil type was single coiled. This was not a good
type because one terminal of the electromagnet remained ineffective. The
improvement began with two coils using a U-shaped core that increased effective
magnetic force to attract the soft armature (see figure below). In order
to take the armature back to its resting position, a spring would do
this. The main aim of the armature is to rock the needle carried through
its grommet. In order not dislodge the needle from the hat of the
grommet, a rubber band is employed.
The improvement of tattoo art has caused invention go beyond
two coils. Currently coiled magnetic machines boast of up to eight pairs of
coils.
The depth of penetration can be adjusted by the use of a
wing nut on the frame that changes the effective length of the space between
the grommet hat and upper part of the tube.
Liner tattoo machine
This is a coil machine with eight wrap coils. The
purpose of a liner machine is make outlines or boundaries of the tattoo
art.
It is used in upright position.
Shader tattoo machine
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A shader tattoo machine is for color painting or shading
of tattoos. It comes in different colors, shapes and sizes. It more
often than not has ten wrap coils but this can go to sixteen for intricate
works. The additional coils imply that the machine’s power consumption is
more than liner tattoo machine for a specific brand of coils each of same power
rating. Generally, the coils are bigger in size making them more massive
than liner tattoo machines.
It is used in angular position during tattooing.
Frequency of a 10 wrap coil shader is about 30,000
jabs/min or 500 Hz.
As a point of note, there so many 10 wrap coil machines
that are hybrid of liner and shader. Their naming system is based on
shape of the frame, color of the frame, overall machine frame size for a given
brand, the material the frame is made of and the number of wrap coils.
Pneumatic tattoo machine
This is the first air-powered tattoo machine that was
invented by Carson Hill in 2000. The coming up of the machine is said to
have ushered in a neo-age of creativity, relieve, and safety and to the
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