A Lesson in Tattooing

I'm writing this book as a resource for tattooers. To help ed-

cate tattooers about what is actually happening when their tattoo

machine drives a needle up and down. It's probably a little more

complicated than you think. I'll be trying to answer some common

questions and I'll try to address some common issues I've seen in

regards to tattoo machines. We are all craftsmen, we can only be

as good at our craft as our instruments allow. Historically a lot of

this information has been held tight to the chest and tight lipped,

but I came about this information by studying, practice and hard

work and I feel that a more enlightened consumer of tattoo tools

benefits every supplier/builder doing it right. Hopefully I can shed

some light on what goes in to building and tuning a rotary. With

the use of rotaries and cartridges being so widespread there is no

better time to write this.

The concept of doing a whole professional tattoo start to

finish with one tattoo machine is still pretty new. With the introduc-

tion of cartridge technology this industry has seen a huge influx of

artists ditching the liner, shader setup and opting for a one car-

tridge machine setup. Using the same machine to line and shade

with. It poses some pretty widespread problems that many people

experience. There is a reason after all that two machines were

used in the first place. I hope to shed some light on why that is.

I won't be addressing coil machines much in this book. I

started out building coil machines and I still do, but there's been

books written about them. I do hope readers that have never tat-

toed with a coil machine pick up on the few times they are refer-

enced here. I refer to a "coil stroke" a few times in this writing, in

some ways it's superior to a rotary. Very few things line or shade

like a well tuned coil machine, that's why rotary builders still try to

find that perfect mechanism that makes a rotary run more like a

coil, without some of the downfalls of course. I'll focus on rotaries

in this book because I feel like that is where the drought in infor-

mation is as well as many misconceptions. And to be honest I've

seen too many tattooers just settling for equipment that doesn't

work well for them. There's too many machine companies out

there with cool looking machines and popular brand ambassadorsthat just don't do the job properly. I knew this information had to

be shared so that tattooers can educate themselves and seek the

right tools for the job.

ROTARY STROKE CHARACTERISTICS

I'd like to begin by talking about stroke characteristics.

When I say stroke characteristcs I'm not just talking about the

needle going up and down, I'm talking about how how exactly

that needle is moving. Is it coming down fast and slower on the

back stroke? How is the machine speed in relation to the needle

speed? Is there mass behind the stroke or is the machine relying

solely on magnetic pull? All these things contribute to a machines

particular stroke characteristics and how a machine feels when

you are using it. So I'll start breaking some of these concepts

down.

I'd like to start out with stroke length. Stroke length seems

to be the one variable in a rotary that tattooers get to select,

change or modify to "tune" their rotary machine or to make it run

differently. Stroke length is extremely important on how a rotary

runs, it doesn't just affect the stroke length. It seems everyone

has their favorite stroke lengths to work with. I've been asked

countless times what the stroke length is on my machines, if I can

do custom strokes for someone who currently uses a 3.5mm and

loves it and ultimately, why I don't do custom stroke length on my

machines. In short, the stroke length on my machines are fixed., I

don't manipulate this because it is directly responsible for the tuno

and stroke characteristics that I've designed into my machines. Let

me explain.

Some people are mistaken that a shorter cam offset on a

rotary makes for a faster machine. For example some people be-

lieve a 3-3.5mm stroke is meant for lining and anything above that

is meant for shading, though I see some machine companies just

now catching on recently. Because liners traditionally run faster

than shaders, when not aware of the actual dynamics of the moch-

anism, that logic may make senso.

However, a smallor cam offaet doos not make the machine

cycle faster. The cam is not a gear, in that one rotation of the

spindle will always equal one rotation of the cam, which will in turn

equal one one full stroke of the needle. So a machine that has a

3mm stroke running at 6v's for instance will be running the sameThat being said, cam offset does manipulate needle

speed, or needle velocity. This may seem confusing at first but

think of it this way. A machine that is set up with a 4mm stroke run-

ning at the same voltage/ speed as a machine that is set up with a

3mm stroke the needle is spinning at the same speed as the 3mm,

but traveling a greater distance in the same amount of time. This

is the difference in needle velocity and machine speed. Needle

velocity is how fast the needles are traveling, machine speed is

how fast the motor is spinning. So the needles are traveling faster

but the machine is not cycling faster. This needle velocity either

creates a snappy, punchy feel to the machine or a smooth softer

touch. I like a punchier liner and a smoother softer shader. You get

this by having a long stroke liner to get that needle velocity and

a shorter stroke shader. There are other variables of course that

contribute to the feel of a machine, I'm simplifying for the sake of

this book. The other variables include the type of motor, how many

poles the motor has, and the actual mechanism of the machine.

So, a 3.5mm stroke will feel completely different on different ma-

chines. If you love your 3.5mm on one machine you wouldn't nec-

essarily love a 3.5mm on another machine, There are too many

factors to account for to make this generalization.

MACHINE RESPONSE

To break down stroke characteristics even further lets discuss

responsiveness. Take into account that the cam is essentially alever. The longer the lever extends from the fulcrum the harder

the machine will have to work to move it against resistance. So

a motor with a 3.5mm cam won't be working as hard pushing a

needle in to the skin as a machine with a 4mm cam. A DC motor

unlike a coil machine however will always finish it's stroke. Mean-

ing it will always either go all the way around to complete a cycle

or stall completely. A coil machine doesn't have to finish a stroke.

The magnets pull down on the armature bar, the needles engage

the skin, when the resistance gets too great the downward motion

stops and the springs pull the armature bar back up. When a coil

machine is tuned and ran properly in the skin the armature bar

won't even reach the front coil on it's cycle. The machine is being

responsive to the skin, or the skin is telling the needles how deep

to go, rather than vice versa. This is paramount in a well tuned

machine, whether coil or rotary. This stroke characteristic allows

the absolute most skin saturation, the least amount of skin trauma

and the fastest heal times. I use the coil machine example to de-

scribe a stroke characteristic that many rotary machine builders try

to replicate with adjustable give. The way I allow for this with my

machines is by pairing the ideal cam offset to the right motor.

Every DC motor has a set torque rating at a set voltage/

speed. By pairing just the right offset cam to the right motor I

manipulate the motor to slow down when meeting the resistance

of the skin. Look at my example below. The graphic shows two

offset cams, a small offset and a longer offset. Above you see two

stick figures with shovels. The length of the shovels corresponds

to the length of the stroke. You can imagine that the person with

a shorter shovel is going to have an easier time digging that hole.

The person with the long shovel is working against that leverage

and every shovel full is going to feel heavier and be more difficult

to move. This is what a motor experiences on a longer stroke ma-

chine. It has to move against the leverage, and all that resistance

that the offset in the cam causes.

By utilizing this aspect of stroke an artist can adjust voltage

to a point where the motor responds just enough to the resistance

of the skin that the needles slow down in the skin slightly before

retracting. By allowing the needles to slow down in the skin you

allow the needles to open up the skin more. This allows for greater

saturation, and a more efficient stroke with shading and lining. So

without any adjustments, the machine is already set up and tuned

to respond to the skin and to have the best stroke characteristics.lever. The longer the lever extends from the fulcrum the harder

the machine will have to work to move it against resistance. So

a motor with a 3.5mm cam won't be working as hard pushing a

needle in to the skin as a machine with a 4mm cam. A DC motor

unlike a coil machine however will always finish it's stroke. Mean-

ing it will always either go all the way around to complete a cycle

or stall completely. A coil machine doesn't have to finish a stroke.

The magnets pull down on the armature bar, the needles engage

the skin, when the resistance gets too great the downward motion

stops and the springs pull the armature bar back up. When a coil

machine is tuned and ran properly in the skin the armature bar

won't even reach the front coil on it's cycle. The machine is being

responsive to the skin, or the skin is telling the needles how deep

to go, rather than vice versa. This is paramount in a well tuned

machine, whether coil or rotary. This stroke characteristic allows

the absolute most skin saturation, the least amount of skin trauma

and the fastest heal times. I use the coil machine example to de-

scribe a stroke characteristic that many rotary machine builders try

to replicate with adjustable give. The way I allow for this with my

machines is by pairing the ideal cam offset to the right motor.

Every DC motor has a set torque rating at a set voltage/

speed. By pairing just the right offset cam to the right motor I

manipulate the motor to slow down when meeting the resistance

of the skin. Look at my example below. The graphic shows two

offset cams, a small offset and a longer offset. Above you see two

stick figures with shovels. The length of the shovels corresponds

to the length of the stroke. You can imagine that the person with

a shorter shovel is going to have an easier time digging that hole.

The person with the long shovel is working against that leverage

and every shovel full is going to feel heavier and be more difficult

to move. This is what a motor experiences on a longer stroke ma-

chine. It has to move against the leverage, and all that resistance

that the offset in the cam causes.

By utilizing this aspect of stroke an artist can adjust voltage

to a point where the motor responds just enough to the resistance

of the skin that the needles slow down in the skin slightly before

retracting. By allowing the needles to slow down in the skin you

allow the needles to open up the skin more. This allows for greater

saturation, and a more efficient stroke with shading and lining. So

without any adjustments, the machine is already set up and tuned

to respond to the skin and to have the best stroke characteristics.Rotaries with a shorter cam offset often spend just as much time

out of the skin as in the skin. This 50/50 stroke has the potential to

create turbulence in the ink well of your tube rather than creating a

nice flow of ink down to the skin. The role of the machine builder is

everything here. Some major manufacturers design and build their

machines to not respond to the skin at all. Their goal is to make a

machine that doesn't slow down, bog or change under any circum-

stances. And some machines are built with so much tension in the

mechanism that by the time the motor is turned up to the voltage

where the force overcomes those tensions and starts spinning

the machine is already way too fast to tattoo efficiently with, and it

doesn't respond to the skin because it is spinning so fast and so

forcefully. There should be a lot of adjustability in your machine.

Let me reiterate that because it is so important. A machine should

be adjustable, it should have the capability of being slowed down

well below tattooing speeds and still have the ability to stop and

go without a bump start or the need to be started with the volt-

age up just to be turned down to tattoo. Think of it like this, every

machine has a finite amount of torque. When a machine starts it

uses torque to move the needle. If you're using cartridges it uses

that torque to push against the tension of the cartridge to get the

mechanism going. It takes more torque to initiate the movement

than it takes to maintain it, so you NEED a large amount of torque

to initiate the movement of the machine mechanism, and the nee-de, and the resistance of the cartridge. It's the easy way out for

a machine builder to just over power a machine because of this.

It needs torque, so I'll just put the most powerful motor I can find

in there right? Wrong! If you use one of those machines then you

will likely be tattooing with a machine with so much torque that the

resistance of the skin will not make it change speeds at all. It will

hit the skin hard, and pull out just as fast likely causing more skin

trauma and not allowing for the most ink saturation.

INK SATURATION

What better time to talk about ink saturation and why

exactly having a machine that bogs or responds to the skin helps

with this. We all see those impossibly saturated tattoos that look

like stickers on the skin right? I'm often asked how I get my tattoos

so saturated and still maintain a typical heal time of under a week.

Well here it is, all my secrets! Well, not really secrets, just an

understanding of what those needles are doing and how to manip-

late that for the best possible outcome.

Let me first dispel one huge myth in tattooing, more spe-

cifically with how the needles deposit ink in to the skin. It is com-

monly believed that the needles enter the skin, create a hole and

the ink rushes to fill that hole as the needles pull out. That the

suction of the needles coming out pulls the ink in to skin. THIS IS

ABSURD. The skin is not a a mud puddle, when you step in mud

your shoe creates a hole, the structure of that hole is rigid enough

that pulling out your foot creates suction, you might even lose your

shoe. A needle going in the skin doesn't create a hole that wants

to be a hole. When the needle exits the skin there is no need for

air or ink to occupy that space that the needle created because

the displaced skin easily comes back to fill that space. Skin is

not rigid, it is flexible and elastic. If this were the case machine

builders would tune machines to retract quickly on the backstroke,

creating more suction, thus creating maximum saturation. But

machines that have a quicker backstroke than downstroke have

proven to be a very poor tattoo machines with poor saturation abil-

ities and even backflow issues with ink. Meaning this movement

actually pulls ink away from the skin.

The trick is to get the mechanism of needle punctures to

deposit the most amount of ink as possible with each and everypuncture. More punctures, more trauma, more trauma, more ink

loss and longer heal times. So what is it? Is it the ink that sticks to

the surface of the needle that is deposited? Not likely either, be-

cause the skin the needle is puncturing is going to squeegee that

ink off as the needle goes in to the skin, and if it doesn't have that

ability why would it squeegee it off on the needles way out to leave

it deposited in the skin?

The needles actually deposit ink by driving down to the

skin and penetrating the skin. As the hand moves forward it cre-

ates a cavity behind the needles. The cavity is formed while the

the needles are still in the skin, the needles are giving the hole

rigidity so the hole doesn't collapse on itself and this is what cre-

ates the suction to pull the ink in to the skin. As the needles retract

the hole closes and the process starts all over again. This is why

backshading is a successful method of soft shading, it deposits

less ink because the hand movement moving away from the hole

doesn't create a cavity like the hand moving forward. To make this

process most efficient it is ideal to be moving the hand and ma-

chine slightly faster than the machine is cycling. If the machine is

running too fast the needles will come out as fast as they went in

and they won't stay in the skin long enough to allow the movement

to make that cavity. This is why it is always important to run rota-

ries slower than faster. Give the mechanism a chance to do the

job. This is also the reason you want a machine that bogs or slows

when meeting the skin. The bog in the machine slows the nee-

dles down enough to open that cavity to deposit the ink, but still

allows the machine to cycle fast enough to tattoo efficiently. The

diagram below shows this process in detail. The red arrows show

the direction that the machine is moving across the skin, the blue

arrows show the direction that the needles are traveling. Boom,

saturation.With rotaries a lot of tattooers have a tendency to run them

up too high, too fast. We generally want to feel some feedback

from the skin, a snap or poke. We pick up that sensation from our

stretching hand as well as the hand holding the machine, if we

don't feel it, we turn the power up. Turning the power up in most

of these instances will allow you to feel the needles enter the skin

better but it won't cause the machine to perform better. By turning

the power up on a rotary it increases the speed, it will increase the

speed of the needles down to the skin but it will also increase the

needle speed out of the skin, it will also not allow your machine to

bog or slow down as it should in the skin. This is what you don't

want, if you're running the machine too fast the needles will not

be able to deposit ink efficiently. If you're having trouble using a

particular machine, or getting used to a new one I recommend

using more needle and running the machine slower. Keep turning

it down until it doesn't put ink in anymore, then turn it up a touch

and use more needle. Find your sweet spot with needle hang

and depth first, then fine tune your speed. Always refer to your

machines recommended speeds. As I said before, all rotaries are

different and run at different voltages. Keep your hand movement

consistent whether you're turning the machine up or down. Go off

the results rather than hand feel.The next tople I'd like to discuss is needle setup. So many

affile I've talked to set up their machines hour they were taught to

do so by their mentors. A slight bend in the needle bar and adjust

the woe tip to be even with the needle to when the needles are

fully retracted. This is absurd to use this as the rule of thumb for

every machine you set up, Let me explain, If a machine only has

a 3 or 3 5mm Grow then trie makss more sense, but l've seen

so many people use this estup on a 4,5 - 4 8mm stroke machine,

I only hang out the amount of needle I plan on ueing, I don't care

Where the needles are in relation to the tube tip when retracted,

Let me break this don. The further the needles are reaching out

from the tube tip the further the ink has to fravel to reach the skin,

and the harder it is to gsste s postive ink flow. This is made even

worse When you consider that in this needle setup the solder band

on the needle grouping never travels outside the tube tip, all but

blocking ink tow completely, I like a longer stroke on my ma-

chines, not just because of the tuning it allows but because I can

est up the tube to reveal ss much needle as I vant and the rest of

the stroke travels in to the ink reservoir of the tube, and back out

sgsin dicking up all that ink on it's way down, cresting a positive

ink flow down to the skin,

I line and shade with the tube to the skin 38 well, This allow

me to get the most amount of ink as possible down to the skin, By

putting that Ink reservolr directly to the skin the needles are always

going through a pool of ink directly in to the skin, eliminating any

distance that ink has to travel, I like running my lines tube to the

skin ss well, for all the ressons I noted above and also because it

kgeps my lines consistent and solid. Think of the tube as a foot on

a selng machine, If you sew without putting the foot down then

the febre moves all over the place, Side to side and even pulls

up wen the needle retracte, That'e exsctly hat skin does just to

a lesser degree, By having that tube against the skin it holds the

skin in place and even stretches that skin around the tip of the

tube to slow your needles to go in easily, and consistently at the

game depin every time. If you're used to tattooing off the needle

as apposed to off the tube it definitely takes some getting used to,

but you'll quickly learn where your needle ls without having to 866

W. And It's much essler in the long run dropping in a confident lineblind knowing it's going to be solid on your first pass than being

able to see your needles and have to do 2-3 passes to make your

line solid.

When setting up any machine including rotaries it is im-

portant to only use the recomended number or the correct style

of rubber band. A lot of care and attention goes in to getting the

machine to run a certain way and the tension of a rubber band can

greatly affect this. If you are using two rubberbands on a machine

designed to be used with 1 you'll likely have to run the machine at

a higher voltage, which will make it run faster and either bog too

much or not enough.

I also check the tension around my needle bar to arama-

ture bar connection. If this connection is too tight the movement

of the a-bar up and down will pull the needle forward and back

against the back of the tube. The needle will lift up from the surface

of the tube it is riding on and slap back down repeatedly spraying

ink out of the tip. You can tighten your rubber band or add anoth-

er one to help keep the needle down but as I said this affects the

tune of the machine. This is the number one cause of spitting from

a machine. If your machine is spitting or you have movement in

your needle you may want to widen the eyelet on your needle bar

slightly instead of just adding an extra rubber band to keep theThis seems like a no brainer, of course the movement has

to slow down before it reverses direction right? But this isn't just

showing that the needle movement is slowing down, it shows that

it is slowing down on half of the stroke. The top quarter and the

bottom quarter of the stroke, together make a half.

Now that we got the complicated bit out of the way we can

talk about how this translates to actual tattooing. I've already talk-

ed about how a larger cam offset translates in to a faster needle

speed, lets now talk about how the cam offset affects this "lag" at

the top and bottom of the stroke.

As you can see in the shaded diagram the red sections are

where the needles are slowing down in their up and down move-

ment. This area of lag grows as the offset grows, and shortens as

the offset shortens, but the ratios always stay the same. The nee-de will always be slowing down through half of the entire stroke.

This lag is beneficial on the bottom of the stroke. We want

the needles to hang in the skin a bit on the down stroke, that

allows our hand movement to open the skin and deposit ink in

the cavity that forms behind the needle. In turn we also like the

needles to speed down to the skin, that gives us the penetrating

power to break the skin and deposit the ink without causing a lot

of undo trauma to the skin. It is the top area of lag which is the

most troublesome. Almost all of us who have ran rotaries haveexperienced that sensation where the needles seem to snag in

the skin. The operator, thinking the machine is running too slow, or

not hard enough will put more voltage to the machine speeding it

up which just makes the needles come down with too much force,

and come out of the skin much too fast. Running a tattoo machine

too fast, rotary or coil results in skin that is beat up and undersatu-

rated.

That snagging sensation is actually just the needles slow-

ing down at the top of the stroke, If the stroke is too short then the

needles will actually start slowing down before they retract fully in

to the tube. You can see the graphie above where the same shad-

ed areas are put in to a graphie of a short stroke and long stroke.

You can see on the short stroke that the needles are glowing down

before retracting fully in to the tube, where the long stroke speeds

back in to the tube and is slowing down in the Ink reservoir It the

needles are slowing down at the top of the stroke, but your hand

lan't, then you are going to get that "nag" sensation.

I like to make sure that the stroke on my rotary machines

la long enough where the whole top quarter of the cam rotation

happens inside the tube. This turn this lag in to a benefit, as it

slows down in the ink reservoir picking up as much Ink as poasible

before racing down to skin. That mean if you are running tube to

the skin the needles are coming out of the tube at max velocity,

slowing down at the bottom, and racing back up to the tube and

your hand doesn't feel the lag at all. The image above shows how

this look at the needle end. The short stroke show the needles

slowing down before retrating in to the tube.

The longer stroke show the needle coming back from the bottom

lag, racing all the way inside the tube and not slewing down again

until the needles are fully retracted.

I had mentioned the needles retracting fully in to the ink

reservoir and of taking advantage of the top lag of the stroke. I

want to explain something elae that le happening while the nee-

dles are moving up and down.

For this image I've used a shader but the concept holde

true with liners also.

Most tubes have a separater

servoir and a flat area

have a saldar lunprefer a shorter cam offset, they feel it makes their tattoos look

smoother and the movement doesn't feel as slappy, or harsh. If we

think about the needle travel on a smaller offset rotary this makes

sense. The red shaded area at the top of the segmented cam

diagram, the area of lag, is closer to the tip of tube, and often even

happening outside the tube. The needles are easing in to the skin

rather than entering at their peak velocity. That makes the move-

ment feel softer. And as the needles are coming out of the skin

they are slowing down before retracting fully into the tube. As the

hand is moving the needles are slowing down, usually at the top

millimeter of the stroke, right off the tip of the tube. As the hand is

moving and the needles are slowing down and scraping across

the surface of the skin they are making superficial marks on the

surface of the skin. The needles aren't depositing this ink into the

skin deep enough for it to stay, but it does have the appearance

of "smoothing" things out. Either black and gray or color, these

superficial marks give the tattoo a well blended appearance but

look at the result only a year or two later and much of the color, or

grays will have fallen out. Ink has to be deposited in to the layer

of retention or it will fall out prematurely, there are no shortcuts to

this. Going over areas multiple times doesn't push ink further in to

the skin, it only makes a more saturated superficial tattoo. Good

for a photo but not for longevity.

I feel it's important to know your tattoo machine and how it

is moving. If you prefer a shorter stroke, just make sure the nee-

dles are fully in the tube the whole top quarter of the cam rotation.

If you feel the snag sensation it's best not to turn the machine up

but rather be aware of what you're actually feeling. If a longer cam

offset feels too punchy or abrasive just slow it down and give it

a try. When you turn a rotary down, try keeping your hand speed

the same as before. You want the needles to move slightly slower

than your hand, turning rotaries down, or slowing them down is

actually the most efficient way to use them and often speeds the

work up. I try to run my rotaries at the lowest speed possible with-

out slowing my hand down. I can not stress this enough. Turning

a rotary up beyond the recommended voltage will make it less

efficient. Before you turn your machine up, always try turning it

down first. It may take a bit to get used to but it will almost always

work better. The worst thing a machine builder can hear from

someone with one of their machines is "How many volts can I putto this without damaging it?" You shouldn't be anywhere near that

voltage!

NEEDLES; BUGPIN VS STANDARD, CURVED

VS. FLAI

With so many needles on the market and easily accessible

it's hard to know the difference between them all and to know what

makes them all different. There are bugpin needles, "standard"

needles, flats, curved, short tapers all the way to extra long tapers.

There are textured needles, polished needles and hollow group-

ings on top of that. So where do you begin to understand where

to start? I relate everything to application, that's how I understand

things better so that is how I will present this information.First let me say that the "standard" needle isn't so standard

anymore. With so many companies in the game now everyone

has their own standard.

"Standard" used to mean a #12 needle.

This refers to the diameter of the needle which is .35mm. The

bugpin, yes back in the day we only had one other option, it was

the #10, or .3mm. Now there's many needle diameters, and some

manufacturers might list their groupings made with #10 needles as

their standard needles and make their bugpins with #8's. There's

so many options now that manufacturers are making up the rules,

they don't have to tell you exactly what it is because you either like

it or you don't. They don't care if you know why you like it.

So to get started lets break application down to it's sim-plest concept. The needle is penetrating the skin and depositing

Ink. It seems so simple, and hopefully after all the tech talk and

analysis it will seem simple in the end. As we know the needles

penetrate the skin, go to a determined depth and come back out.

The most fundamental concept of needles is this. The ink being

deposited by the needle is in the footprint of that needle. Smaller

needle, smaller footprint.

Which needles have a smaller footprint? Bugpins and

extra long taper needles. These needles have a smaller surface

area, they take less force to push in to the skin and they leave a

small footprint. These needles are being used more and more.

These needles are easy to execute a well blended black and

gray or undersaturated tattoo but can be more difficult to execute

a highly saturated tattoo without over working it. Because these

needles have a smaller footprint and a smaller surface area they

are easier to push in to the skin. Something broader and blunter

would naturally seem more difficult to push in to a flexible mem-

brane. Since they take less force to push and create a smaller

footprint you're able to run your machine softer and get a nice

soft well blended appearance to your tattoo. When used proper-

ly on the right machine these needles are a great tool because

they do create some beautiful effects, and are even great to line

with in some cases. What these needles are not ideal for is col-

or saturation. The reason is the same feature that gives them a

smaller footprint and a smaller surface area makes them hold

less ink on their surface and deposit less ink when they go in to

the skin. That means that you have to strike the skin more to get

the same saturation as a larger diameter needle. Some might

call bullshit on this and say,

" But bugpins are smaller so you can

strike the skin more without traumatizing the skin more". This

may be true if you didn't take in to account that since bugpins

are smaller they are grouped closer together. The cavities in and

L individial noodle meant to hold ink are a lot smaller.The spaces between a bugpin needle arrangement are

sometimes comparable to the spaces around a lining needles

individual needles and we all know the risk of trying to saturate a

large area with a liner needle. But as I said above we're not just

talking about bugpin needles, we're talking about extra long taper

needles as well. Unlike bugpins the grouping of e.I.t needles isn't

any closer together than standard. Their smaller footprint comes

from the smaller diameter taper which enters the skin. The nee-

dles are soldered together at their full diameter so there is actually

more space in between each needle than standard. The problem

with saturation with these needles comes in two ways. Either strik-

ing the skin too many times to try and saturate the skin with the

very small, spread out footprints of the needles, or the desire to go

deeper to plunge the thicker part of the needle in to the skin to get

better surface area in contact with the skin, and deposit more ink,

which unfortunately tends to push the needle tips too far in to the

underlying skin and causes overworking issues, redness, and ex-

cessive bleeding. You can see in this graphic that if I wanted to get

my long taper needle deep enough to have the same footprint as

the standard needle I would be going far deeper than I needed to.These needles are so popular because just about any ma-

chine on the market can run them with ok results. It's easy to hook

up a bugpin 5 or 7rd on just about any tattoo machine to line a

tattoo and even easier to shade mediocre black and gray or color

tattoo with a curved bugpin 15 mag. But if you're looking for the

best tool for the job this usually isn't it.

The best tool for the job is whatever needle allows you to

penetrate the skin the least amount of times while still obtaining

your desired outcome. It's all about efficiency. I like long tapers

for lining, and sometimes bugpins. Since they do take less force

to penetrate it is sometimes easy to run faster more solid lines

without having to stretch the skin so much. If you've ever had a

problem with a hollow line, meaning you run a line and the sides

of the line are dark and solid but the center is light, that means the

needles are pushing the skin away from the tube more than they

are penetrating. You can see an example of this in the graphic

below. It could mean your not stretching the skin enough, or that

the taper of the needles is so blunt that your machine doesn't

have the ability to push it in to the skin. A hollow line can also be

caused if you're lining with rotaries and the stroke of your machine

is "easing" in to the skin rather than "snapping" in to the skin. Ro-

taries that aren't built specifically to be liners will have a tendency

to want to "push" the skin away instead of punching through it. So

tattooers need to overcome this by either stretching a lot more, us-

ing smaller groupings, or longer taper groupings, or by using a lin-

ing specific machine. Many cartridge specific machines have this

issue, some are just impossible to line with or just aren't versatile

liners at all. Unlike a shader where you can assist that downwardvelocity of the needles to the skin with a choppy or faster han

movement, we rely on the machine to punch in a line itself aspass along the skin evenly and consistently. So for lining what I'm

looking for is a nice snappy stroke that punches in to the skin. The

best analogy I have for this is putting a straw in to a juice box. I

think everyones done that right? If you ease the straw in you're

just going to stretch out the seal and the straw won't puncture. The

straw is pushing the seal away like a liner needle pushes the skin

away. But if you grab the straw and poke it through quickly then

the straw goes right in.If you look at your line and it is rake-y, or you see the

dual lines in it from the individual needles then that's a pretty

clue that the taper on your needle is too long. As I said, on

tra long taper needle the spaces between the needles arelarger toward the tip of needle, if you are tattooing in to the layer

of retention, the layer of skin deep enough to hold the ink, and you

can still see the spaces between the needles in your linework then

the taper is too long.

I like short and medium taper needles much better than

bugpin and long taper needles for shading. When used in a capa-

ble well tuned machine these needles will be versatile and much

more capable than the smaller diameter needles. Because short

and medium taper needles have a larger surface area they carry

more ink in the skin.

I prefer to manipulate the footprint of the needle

by adjusting my angle to the skin. For heavy saturation I want

a larger footprint I so I come at the skin at a 45* angle making

that footprint more of an oval. I also move my machine back and

forth in chopping movement at a 45* to the face of the tube. That

movement overlapse my needle footprints in a mag arrangement

as you can see above. I do not move my machine in little circles,

just back and forth. I find making circles with the machine makes

for inconsistent shading and blends that aren't that smooth. This

makes sense if you see my graphic above that shows the paths

the needle grouping is making. it cuts across the bottom with a lot

of overlap in needle strikes, up with fewer and again cuts across

the top with a lot of overlap. You can see this very clearly when

doing black and gray, it's not as evident in color but it does make a

huge difference.

When I want to fade out of a color or do softer gray shad-

ing my machine is more upright making the footprint of the nee-

dles smaller. If your needles are always depositing the maximum

amount of ink that is possible in that particular orientation then you

will rarely be in a position where you're worried about over-work-

ing the skin, or be in a position where your needles won't allow

you to get the saturation you want without the trauma that you

don't.

I also use the 45 degree rule with my lining. I always hold

my machine at a 45 to the skin, either pushing or pulling making

sure that the machine is tracking behind or in front of my line. The

importance of this lining technique can't be stressed enough for

a solid line that heals and ages well. If you're side-lining, mean-

ing running your liner at an angle to the skin but your line path is

going perpendicular to the angle of your machine, then your liningwill take longer, longer to heal, possibly heal blurry and and age

poorly. The reason is that as the needles go in to the skin this way

the force of the needles pushes out that side of your line. It may

look fine when it's healed but a line that is side-lined will grow and

widen much more over time and not stay as tight.

The photo below shows two different tattooed lines.Both of these lines were tattooed with the same exact needle,

same machine, one right after the other. The line on the left shows

good technique where the machine was tracing the path of the

line. The line on the left shows poor technique, with the machine

held at an angle

to the skin

perpendicular to

the path of the

needle. At first

glance it may

not seem bad,

but the subse-

quent images

show how one

side of the line

is blurry and the

other is solid.

You can also

see gaps in the line where the footprints of the needle didn'toverlap enough to make a solid line. These problems just get

worse as the tattoo heals.

You can see in the above graphic where I highlighted the

needles footprints. It's clear to see how when the machine trac-

es the path of the line that the oval needle footprints overlap and

stack making a solid crisp line. The line that was side-lined is

wider and inconsistent. You can see the needle footprints all lined

up side by side, with little overlap. You can also see that the force

was pushing the needles and the ink to the side, creating a blurry

and blown out edge to that line. It important to always use proper

technique, it makes your equipment work more efficiently, faster

and makes tattoos that look better longer. It's better to be known

as the person whose work from 10 years ago looks like it was

done yesterday than the person who posted a dope tattoo picture

10 years ago but you wouldn't even recognize it now.CURVED MAGS VS. FLAT MAGS

Before wrapping up on needle types and taper lets talk a

little about the curved mag grouping. Curved mage were designed

to bettor fit the curvature of the skin indent as it is being penetrat-

ed. As the needles come down they push against the skin, push-

ing it away before they penetrate. On a largér groupings there is

more surface area, so the force needed to push them in is greater,

go the force the skin experiences is greater. If you push your finger

In to your arm you will see a divot form. That is what happens

when needles push against the skin. On a flat needle configura-

ton where the contour of the grouping doesn't match the contour

of the skin the needles on the edges of the grouping dig in, and go

deeper than the needles in the center of the grouping. That makes

for really inconsistent fill or color. The effects are less noticeable

on smaller groupings because thy take loss force to penetrate

the skin, no the divot in the skin le smaller. So why use a curved 7

mag? In my opinion there len't a good reason, wherever you aro

on the body the needles on the edges of the grouping are going

to penetrate just about the same depth as the middle. What about

a curved 9 mag? The needles on the edges are getting further

from the center, they have a tendency to dig in a bit more than

the middle, but with a good stretch and a good machine the depth

shouldn't vary enough to necessltate a curved mag. I say onceuse a curved mag all the time? True a lot of it comes from prefer-

ence, but many times, especially in tattooing the easy way isn't the

best way. If you're using a smaller grouping curved mag you could

have the same issues as you would using a large grouping flat

grouping on a curved surface, only in reverse. The middle needle

will dig in deeper than the edges and cause inconsistent color.

The other downfall of curved mags is your ability to shade

up to edges. Yes it makes is so much easier to blend out and get

solid color but filling solid up next to an edge feels like your carv-

ing a line in a wave with a surf board. You maneuver and tilt, twist

and finagle and your super happy with your results, then you see

the tattoo healed and there's a light space between your black line

and black shading. The best way I've found to deal with that is by

using the appropriate grouping for the job. Sometimes that means

setting up a curved 11 mag and a flat 9. Sometimes it's a curved

11 and an 11rd shader.

ROTARY LINERS, SHADERS AND CARTRIDGE

MACHINES

Liners and shaders both have distinctly different ideal

stroke characteristics to make them best suited for the job they are

intended to do. With the liner being tuned to be snappy, strong but

still respond to the skin and the shader being powerful, still re-

sponsive while having a stroke that eases in to the skin and slows

down just a touch before the backstroke.

As far back as the beginning of modern electric tattooing

tattooers have used two different tools for lining and shading.

That's because they saw that two different stroke characteristics

were needed to perform the two totally different jobs of lining

and shading. With the introduction of cartridges to the scene and

their growing popularity I find more and more people interested in

trying a cartridge setup if they haven't already. They often times

ask me about my Method cartridge exclusive machine and will it

line just as well as their coil machine their used to. Chances are.

no it won't. It's not a downfall or a design flaw of the machine. It's

no different than any other cartridge exclusive machine availableyou van line and shade with. Ev-

eryone is looking for the one silver bullet that is going to be capa-

ble, intuitive and crush right out the gate. Well that's an awfully tall

order given the task at hand, and considering the huge variety of

equipment that is available to artists now and what you are transi-

toning from.

Every single cartridge machine on the market has been

designed to be a good all around machine. You'll find that some

work better than others for lining, while others won't line at all.

And you'll find that some run too fast and hard to shade with, but

line real well. Every builder/engineer has a different way of ap-

proaching the problem of one machine, two distinct uses. In my

opinion my Method and my Small Can tackles this problem very

well, and shades and lines better than other cartridge machines,

but if you're transitioning from coil machines I would urge you to

consider this. Going from coil machines to a cartridge exclusive

machine is skipping a huge step in rotary machines. The change

from standard needle and tube on a coil machine to a cartridge on

a rotary machine is just setting you up to be disappointed. There

are too many variables that are different, it would be like having to

re-learn how to tattoo all over again.

IRANSITIONING TO CARTRIDGES FROM

NEEDLE TUBE SETUPS

The next logical step for someone wanting to try or tran-

sition to cartridges from coils is to actually try a rotary. And not

just any random middle of the road rotary on the market. As I said

before liners and shaders have unique stroke characteristics, even

rotaries. Go 

NEEDLE TUBE SETUPS

The next logical step for someone wanting to try or tran-

sition to cartridges from coils is to actually try a rotary. And not

just any random middle of the road rotary on the market. As I said

before liners and shaders have unique stroke characteristics, even

rotaries. Go with a rotary that is built to be an ideal liner, or an

ideal shader. Try my Micro-liner or a Dan Kubin Sidewinder, both

built to be awesome liners without compromise. If you're setting

up without a specialized tattoo machine, you will be making some

compromises, period, whether that's in the form of having to tattoo

slower or not have as many needle grouping options.

Having the right tool for the job isn't just important to pro-

duce a solid tattoo, it's so important to give the artist confidence

to produce tattoos at the best of their abilities, starting with the

design stage. Use a machine that is capable of doing any and allTile that your machine can't do or staying away from a bolder line

than the design call for just because your machine has a hard

lime lining.

Go to sum this up, If you use colts arid love them, dopel

Bliok with your coils, but if vou want to transition to rolaries bes

cause you have wrist strain or because you want a machine that

rune the game after the 6th hour of tattooing as it did after the

Tel, then try a rotary suited to your purpose. Use a rotary liner, or

a rotary shader, not just some machine sold as a "rotary tattoo ma-

chine, one gun to kill em all." After that, If volte thinking of moving

toward a cartridge setup then use cartridges with the rotaries that

you're used to running and that you get great results with. After a

while you'I come to a point when you're so comfortable with those

that you'll want to experiment with cartridge exclusive machines.

Cartridge machines have a lot of benefits that other machines

don't have, but they have drawback as well. You have to be

ready ready for that or you will be turned off of cartridges forever.

Tattooing le hard enough, keep your equipment transitions small

and you'll adapt quickly and a lot more easily,

MACHINE WEIGHT AND VIBRATION

Machine weight is very important variable in how a ma-

chine operates and how you operate that machine. The trend in

the industry ls to build lighter and lighter machines. While I'm all

for a light machine I think a bit of mass and balance ls important

for a machine to run properly and for the comfort of the tattooer.

Remember Newton 3 of law of physice? Every action has an

equal and opposite reaction. This applies te tattooing because

the force it takes to drive the needles in to the skin is the same

amount of force pushing back on our hand. If you are using a

machine with a little bit of weight to it that force will dissipato in

that mass. The lighter the machine, the more you will experience

that force pushing back away from the skin, The only way to

overcome It is to grip the machine tighter and push harder, which

leads to wrist and finger pain, arthritis and carpal tunnel. I'm not

a fan of heavy machines by any means but I do like a little bit

of weight in just the right places for this reason. It also abnorba"Moon offed edd thing ether. Too much vibra-

ton isn't good for your hand holding the machine or for your ability

to tattoo any amount of detail, but a little bit of vibration assists

with driving the needle down to skin and also assists with the

movement that helps the machine saturate ink. It's about having

the perfect amount, you want to let the machine to do as much of

the work as it can.

As far as balance goes, a lot of the weight should be as

close to directly over the needle as possible, If too much weight

hangs off the back of the machine then you will have to grip the

machine too tightly when you're cornering around a tattoo. Your

cord choice also adds to that weight.

Many cord connections on machines come right off the

rear. If you're using a heavy clip cord you are adding way too

much weight to exactly where you don't want it on a machine.

There is no reason to use a huge large gauge clip cord that

weighs a lot. The largest gauge wire in most tattoo machines is

22ga. That's pretty small, much smaller than any clip cord or rca

cord. Some might even argue that the super large diameter cords

feeding your machine causes a bottleneck effect in the current

flowing from the cord to the machine and has the potential to

cause heat and damage in your machine. So why do you need

a cord larger than 22 ga. to feed the power to your machine?

Well here's why. Cords are made of multistrand copper wire and

these little strands break over time with flexing and movement, so

you need more strands of wire than you need to compensate for

breakage. This wire was originally designed to be flexible so that

it can be snaked in to tight spaces and installed in place per-

manently in to it's perspective applications. In all applications of

multistrand wire where the wire is bending and moving all the time

these cords are replaced often. Think of how often professional

musicians replace their microphone and instrument cords. There

are better ways of making a cord durable and hold up to bending

and movement than just making a cord out of a hefty super large

diameter wire that is heavy and causes wrist pain. I address this

problem with my Bowers Repairable Clip Cord by having my own

special wire custom made that has a higher strand count, but

smaller gauge wire. Simple concept, thicker copper strands break

more easily because they don't bend as easy. Thinner strands

bend more easily and for much longer before breaking. The rea-son this isn't industry standard for cords is simply because this

wire is more expensive to produce.

I do prefer a machine with some back weight over pen

style machines, the main reason being that when that weight

hangs off the back of my hand it causes the tube to register prop-

erly to the skin. I can flip the machine around and that weight on

the back of the machine always wants to hang down, causing that

tube to lay flat to skin. Without the weight you're back having to

hold on too tight to twist and register the tube to the skin.

A machine should rest in your hand with minimal effort, it

should be balanced so that you don't have to grip it too tight and it

should tattoo without having to physically push it too hard in to the

skin.I thought I should add a little piece in here about machine

care. There are so many bad habits and misconceptions about

machines and how to take care of them I thought I'd share. First

I'd like to say always read and follow the care and maintenance

instructions that come with your machines. Those instructions

supersede what I say.

Rotaries don't run on oil. You'd think that by how many ma-

chines I've gotten back soaked in oil. It is not necessary to oil your

machines more frequently than 1-2 times a month if at all. I say if

at all because most rotary machines on the market from reputable

companies/ builders are built with sealed bearings. These bear-

ings are sealed to keep out dirt, debris, and cleaners, but these

bearings are also packed with grease and those seals also keep

the grease in. This seal gives the bearing a nice long life, unless

that grease breaks down. What breaks down grease? That's right,

oil does. So once you oil a bearing you'll have to start a more

frequent oiling routine from then on. I recommend one drop on

the friction points of the machine and one drop on the bearing.

Let it sit for a bit and then wipe off the excess. All that being said

about oil, I do think grease is your best bet. Get some Super Lube

and grease those friction parts and bearings. Oil tends to get in to

those tight spaces but it doesn't stick around long. Grease works

better in my opinion.

Another reason I prefer grease over oil is that oil has thepotential to destroy the motors in your rotary. If you don't keep

your oil use under control and oil seeps in to the motor it will coat

the coils and seep down in the commutator and short your motor

out. Flames and definitely smoke are possible but often times you

just get inconsistency, start stop, and a bad smell. This is honestly

the most frequent repair I have to do. I open machines up and oil

just pours out of them. So spread the word!

Another thing that people over use is MadaCide, CaviCide

and other cleaners. Never ever spray cleaners directly on to your

machines. Always spray the cleaner on to a paper towel and wipe

off your machines that way. These cleaners when allowed to pool

and sit on a machine will destroy it faster than anything. These

cleaners break down grease, and oils. So it causes bearings to

fail and strips metal of it's protecting oils, so the metal rusts and

oxidizes. These cleaners aren't recommended to pool on an object

either. They disinfect and clean better when they are applied thinly

and left to dry. If you're concerned with the finish of your machine

you can protect it with a rubdown with a bit oil on paper towel. It

doesn't take much, but a periodic wipedown will prevent oxidation

and rust.

Always go by the recommended voltage that the maker

of the machine states. If that doesn't work for you then try turning

down first. Then try using more needle to see if that works. Only

try running it at higher voltages after you've tried that. The worst

thing a builder could hear from a customer is "How many volts can

I run this at without damaging the motor". Running a machine too

fast makes the machine inefficient and less tuned to do the job.PEN STYLE MACHINES

With the popularity of pen style machines today I had to

give them their own section. I've got to say right off the bat that I'm

not a fan of pen style tattoo machines for a number of reasons. I

wish I did, I love the concept. I've even developed a working proto-

type of a killer pen style machine, but ultimately abondoned it due

to some of these reasons.

First and foremost it is amazing what a blind eye the entire

industry has turned to how dirty these machines are. I don't blame

the people using them either, the culture of thinking critically about

cross contamination isn't as prevalent as it used to be. It seemsand you can use cartridges with a diaphram, but this still doesn't

keep your machine clean. If you switch between cartridges, where

do you put the cartridges not being used? By definition whatever

the surface that these cartridges are resting on is dirty. The worst

offenders will even have these cartridges rolling around theirworkspace, roling in to their ointment or ink, picking them up by

'ne back stem and ultimately putting that cartridge back in to the

machine. On a pen style machine the back stem of a cartridge en-

ters a hole on the machine. In this hole is a plunger and a mech-

anism to make that plunger go up and down. Imagine this hole as

a cavity, a cavity that can't be accessed, and a cavity that can't be

cleaned. Biohazardous material from every cartridge you've ever

picked up from a dirty workspace enters this cavity, diaphram or

not there is material going in to that hole, and likewise that mate-

rial is coming out as well. That back stem of the cartridge is pick-

ing up all that other material from all those previous clients and it

contaminates your work area, gloves and whatever it touches.

I've rebuilt a few pen machines back in the day and I was

blown away at how disgusting the inside of these machines are. If

you're skeptical just look up videos on youtube on how to rebuild

your pen machine. Every pen machine I've opened has had ink,

plasma, skin sludge and even hair inside. These contaminants ar-

en't isolated, every back stem of a cartridge put in to the machine

comes out with that sludge on it. The grossest machines that I

opened up were diaphram cartridge only machines. Diaphram

cartridges are the biggest lie there is. They are sold as being safe

and not capable of cross contaminating, but it's the machine and

the system that's dirty.

You can wrap your pen style machine with all the plastic

in the world, and even use diaphram cartridges but the back stem

of the cartridge is still going in to the plunger hole of the machine

and the cartridge comes out dirty and contaminates everything it

touches, and everything those things touch and so on and so on. I

know there's bound to be skeptics of this information, but to quote

a good friend of mine, "if it's so clean, then lick it". If you trust your

pen machine is clean and the backs of your cartridges are clean

and free of bio material, then lick it.WHAT MAKES ROTARIES AND COIL MACHINES DIFFERENT?

Apart from the obvious physical and mechanical differenc-

es, in my opinion rotaries don't commonly have the slap per say ofColl stroke starts off strong and drives the mass of the armature

bar down. That mass drives the needles down, starts off strong at

the top then weakens as the needles move down and ultimatoly

ending with the armature bar striking the front coil. Which gives it

that "snap". Rotaries differ in that they carry the same force and

roughly the same speed all the way through the stroke. Which

makes it more powerful. Saturation is obtained by the ability to

hang the needles in the skin just a touch longer so your hand

movement opens up the skin a little bit more to deposit more

ink with less holes. You have more ability to do this with rotaries

because you have full control of machine speed, where with a coll

your only controlling speed as a function of force, but mostly just

adjusting force.

So a well designed rotary will feel less forceful than a coll

when ran properly but has the potential to be much more efficient

at putting ink in to the skin. It should be avoided to turn the rotary

up so far as to get the same hand feel as the colls your used to

running. If you run a rotary too fast and too hard it won't open the

skin at all and will just cause a lot of trauma.

One reason some might choose a rotary over a coil is

that coil machines tend to be a little more fickle when it comes to

resistance and operation. When I made the switch to rotaries the

main determining factor was that I wanted a machine to run the

same in the last hour of a long tattoo session as it did in the first

hour. There are a couple things that happen in coil machines that

make them run differently after 3-4 hours of continuous use. Over

a session a coll machine can lose some power due to the colls

picking up a magnetic charge or heating up. Another reason a coil

machine can loose power in a session is by having ink dry and

accumulate on the inside edges of the tube. That added resis-

tance can rob power from your machine and can cause the coil

machine to not run in tune as it was intended. Though rotaries are

still affected by added resistence they are much better typically at

pushing through it while maintaining their tune.

WHAT VOLTAGE SHOULD RUN MY MACHINE AT?Every motor is different. One mistake that people make

is thinking that a 4mm cam is going to react the same way on

another machine as it did on the last. Every machine is built anddesigned differently, different motor, different offset and different

frame geometry, etc. You don't need a lot of torque you just need

the right amount of torque at the right speed. If the machine is too

torquey at lower speeds then it will have too much torque at oper-

ating speeds and tear up the skin. If it doesn't have enough torque

you will have to turn it up too much to get the torque you need to

penetrate the skin, that increases the speed causing the machine

to run too fast and will tear up the skin. I tune my machines to

be ideal machines for tattooing because I understand tattooing,

I'm less concerned with simply making a mechanism that makes

a needle go up and down. Most rotaries on the market are just

that, mechanisms that make a needle go up and down. By using

the frame geometry, the cam offset as a lever and a couple oth-

er tricks I've developed I can create a stroke in the machine that

slows down and responds to the skin at just the right spot in the

machine stroke. This is how I tune my rotaries.

WHAT IS A DIRECT DRIVE AND WHAT ARE THEY GOOD

FOR?

A direct drive is a rotary where the needle is essentially

attached directly to the cam. The machine has no mechanism to

convert rotational movement in to linear movement. The needle

moves side to side as well as up and down because of this, as

well as up and down. A direct drive can't really be tuned. There's

no mechanism for modifying the stroke characteristic besides

adding weight to the spindle mass, but this rarely offers any

benefit to making a tattoo machine better at tattooing, it usually

just adds a bit of force to the initial contact with the skin and then

slows the movement down from there. Direct drives also cause a

wobble in your needles since they have no mechanism for making

rotational movement into linear movement. So the needles move

side to side often times causing friction and rubbing on the sides

of the tube. The use of cartridges with this system solves those

potential problems since the cartridge in this case would actually

be the mechanism transferring the rotational movement in to linear

movement.