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.

 

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