Tattoo Ink, Guns, and Supplies
Welcome
to onepointtattoo.com. We are a site dedicated to bringing you the most
up to date information on all things tattoo, such as tattoo inks, tattoo
guns, and the needles they use. We are also an excellent source for
you to find out more about how and where to have ink done. Check back
frequently, because we are constantly updating. As always, if you have
any questions about anything you find here, or something you feel should
be here, please contact us.
Tattooing is defined as the indelible marking of the body by insertion
of pigment under the skin or by the production of scars. Now if making
a tattoo out of scars sounds masochistic to you, you’re not alone.
However the idea is more closely tied with the history of ink tattoos
than you might think. The original form of tattooing involved pricking
a design into the skin with needles until the skin was bleeding freely.
Only at that point could the ink be rubbed into the freshly opened wound.
The resulting marking was permanent, much like today’s tattoos.
The process however, was much more likely to leave scars than the process
used today.
Today’s tattoo artists use
tattoo guns, or machines.. The original design for a tattoo gun
is actually credited to Thomas Edison. His machine was not designed
for use on humans, but rather to engrave metal. The needle was solid,
and propelled repeatedly back and forth by altering electromagnetic
coils. The alternating current (AC) would fire first one coil, then
the other, repeatedly advancing and retracting the needle.
The original machine would not have been much of an improvement over
the old method of stabbing you till you bled before applying ink. However
a man named Samuel O’Reilly took notice of Edison’s machine,
and introduced a few ingenious modifications. He replaced the solid
needle with a hollow one, and connected it to a reservoir that could
be filled with ink. While the modern tattoo machine can still cause
bleeding (you try getting poked thousands of times with needles without
drawing blood) the blood flow is not the intended effect, nor the sign
a tattoo artist is looking for. It is considered more of an unavoidable
side effect today.
The time it takes to have a tattoo placed varies due to two factors,
the complexity of the design, and the size. Overly complex designs require
extensive lining, or use of fine needles to draw thin lines of ink in
the skin. Large tattoos also require a lot of shading, where the artist
uses larger needles to color in swaths of skin that do not require detailing.
A small, simple tattoo could take as little as 15 minutes for a skilled
artist to complete. Intricate sleeves (complete coverage of the arm)
must be done over several sessions, each session lasting for upwards
of four hours. There are stops just about anywhere in between those
two extremes, but a common suggestion for a first time inker is to start
small. The experience is one that takes acclimatization, and if you
take more than you can handle the first time, you may regret it later.