TATTOO MACHINES! (lots of pics)

Agonistes · **on:** May 31, 2013, 04:47:04 PM

work for me but leisure for most, so i figured this thread should go here.

all but two of my machines. the 'working' ones are in my drawer at work (all of them work except two i robbed for parts and whatever is in the toolbox, i just mean the ones i actually use). i don't take the case to work any more after having one machine get stolen and used (a collector's machine i had not yet used myself), although i got it back. the company will rebuild it like new for me soon, they said. i wish for free.

this is mainly a bling machine, but it's a good name. i use an aluminum-framed tommy gun at work for an outliner, this liner is not so awesome as it looks. i like this guy's older machines better. note the plug at the bottom; i have converted most of my machines to RCA cord rather than clip cords, which clip in to two holes at the bottom of the machine. the power flow is better and they don't get shorts in the cord as quickly. brass frames are cool, but a lot of guys complain about them being heavy. i like heavy machines. it's not like it weighs a pound....

i have not converted the precious to RCA cord. this was my favorite liner, but i retired it because it was getting battered, and they discontinued whatever process they colored the metal frame with because it chipped too easily...this is a pretty rare machine, though. note the leather-wrapped coils.

this is the machine that got stolen. it's an interesting story but who cares, i got it handed back to me by a cop who frequents my shop when the guy who stole it went (back) to jail. the idiot ran it so hot the back post grommets melted a little bit (not visible in this pic). this is one of 333 built, all are signed by danny fowler, who makes them, and mine is numbered 285.

an old coastal. when i found this machine it had no capacitor whatsoever, and it sounded like a jackhammer no matter how far you turned down the power supply. i replaced the guts and it is a nice reliable shader now. i would venture to guess this frame is about thirty years old. i don't use it much because i use plastic disposable tubes most often now instead of the old autoclaved metal ones, and you have to crank the holder shut with pliers.

my only chinese-made machine. i liked the 'damascus' frame. runs like crap no matter what i do to it, so i put the original guts back in it and it is for show now.

my two original time machines, made by danny fowler. both brass frames, both leather-wrapped coils. i have done thousands of tattoos with these machines and they have been cleaned so many times i'm almost afraid to touch them.

to be continued...

Agonistes · **Reply #1 on:** May 31, 2013, 05:29:07 PM

this was my first liner, disregarding the two pumas that my boss made me assemble when i was an apprentice, and i used till i had some cash. this is a machine from a company called 'national' and back in the day you could only deal with them if you could prove you actually had a shop. the frame is in the style of an old 'jonesy' which was named for the tattooist back in the mid 1900's who designed the style originally. this is a tube holder design they made called a 'swing-gate' and it is awesome. suddenly you could do quick changes and no pliers on the table!

ignore the blingy money wraps, everybody was doing it.

the twins. an aluminum pair of time machines, liner and shader. i think they have discontinued this frame, too.

last one i ordered from time machine. note the great big 'd. fowler' stamp--he doesn't sign every one of them anymore. this one is a single coil machine, i haven't had a lot of chance to work with it yet but it is supposed to be a more kinder, gentler shader.

these two puma frames were my VERY first machines. they have been rebuilt so many times it's mind-boggling. also they are my 'loaners' when i have an apprentice, until the apprentice can afford something decent to use. these are so annoying that usually they act as incentive to get better machines, even though they do perfectly reliable work after you fiddle with them for half an hour. the single-coil machine is turned around in the background so you can see the single coil.

and lastly, my little souvenir from some convention or another the shop guys went to. it actually runs, but not well, and i wouldn't use it on anybody, even if i had a needle small enough to fit in it, also, the tube is not hollow, lol. the guy who sells them makes some pretty awesome equipment, too. oh, and all the pinstriping on these last machines was during a pinstriping frenzy at a shop i worked at a few years back in mobile. seriously, we pinstriped everything we could get ahold of.

lowtech · **Reply #2 on:** May 31, 2013, 06:39:44 PM

Now, this is something different, but highly interesting.

Do you only use Coil-Powered machines? you read and hear a lot about ones with rotating, brushless electric motors or ones driven by pressurized air.

My Tattoss have all (not so many, but still...) been done with classic coil driven machines, though.

Still have one to be finished as teh Tattooer moved from my Hometown back to the States inbetween sessions...

I can imagine, like all tools, they can become an addiction all by themselves.

Zed · **Reply #3 on:** May 31, 2013, 07:05:04 PM

Very cool mate,I've had many over the years and I had a few lynx first that might be like pumas

Thanks for sharing

Agonistes · **Reply #4 on:** May 31, 2013, 07:17:05 PM

lowtech: i've used primarily coil-powered machines, yes. i have seen air machines, but not in use, just sitting in another artist's toolbox, and she wasn't in the shop, so i didn't mess with them. they were tiny, and light, and just looking at them i couldn't figure out how they work...i'd try one one day, but not on skin immediately. i would imagine the air source is noisy. my business partner just got a pair of roto-machines and he swears they are the best thing ever, but then he's been on a search to reduce the amount of weight of his machines until they just sort of hover above the desk.

i'm just old-school. i like the weight and the spark in the back and the noise. and, i'm a total collector about them, i'd have hundreds if they weren't so cost-prohibitive (for the ones that are any good, that is).

zed, are there pics? what's your favorite machine?

lowtech · **Reply #5 on:** May 31, 2013, 07:58:34 PM

Not that I´d know smurf about Tattoo guns, but it´s always interesting to learn about the tools of someones trade and the affection that many users have to their tools.

I imagine the air guns to be most likely comparable to dentists tools, so the air source must not be loud as it can be in a remote location (given that air is routed through teh shop)

And i can understand why some Artists would rather have a weightless gun while another needs to "hold a handful" while working.

From what i know a Tattoo machine works a bit like an electric doorbell, the lever that moves the needle sitting atop two coils with a hinge inbetween both coils. When the rear coil gets power and it gets magnetic it will move the needle up, in the very moment breaking contact to the coil and making contact to the first which in return gets magnetic and pulls the needle down and breaks contact and gives contact to the rear coil again, right?

Need to save up to get that Tattoo finished...

derekmac · **Reply #6 on:** May 31, 2013, 08:03:09 PM

Very cool, thanks for sharing! I'm trying to plan out my next tattoo, but still undecided.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

stealth007s · **Reply #7 on:** May 31, 2013, 11:59:37 PM

Very nice addition to the Break Room with this thread A!¡! I don't have any tattoos but I have three kids (all grown now) that are tattooed. I am really liking that six-shooter tattoo gun

Jailbird · **Reply #8 on:** June 01, 2013, 05:18:06 AM

Very bad ass! My brother in law has been working on a sleeve for me for the past 2 years. Not much progress but I guess paying customers come first.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Agonistes · **Reply #9 on:** June 01, 2013, 06:48:39 PM

it is almost exactly like a doorbell. the coils are most often eight- or ten-wrap. there is a capacitor between them and the footswitch makes a current that creates an electromagnet that repeatedly grabs an armature bar, which has a peg on top to hold the needle bar's loop. it all runs off a power supply with adjustable current, because machines can be more easily adjusted and tuned with a variable power source. the traditional machine in its current design is in fact a total mod of thomas edison's electric stencil maker, by a guy named samuel o'reilly (who, the story goes, did purchase the machine he modded). interesting story with some fun patent attempts, if you feel like googling it. spoiler: edison actually failed to get a patent for an electric tattoo machine.

here is a breif history, but there are better ones online with more photos. http://www.jinxiboo.com/blog/2010/1/22/history-of-the-tattoo-machine-how-thomas-edison-samuel-oreil.html

in fact, recently i took an antique phone apart to use in a show (i'd have restored it, but the innards were rotten) and was surprised, it was two huge coils and a back-and-forth armature bar (the bell clapper) situated between two bells. same exact machine, without the capacitor, and laid out a little differently. and of course the coils were huge.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2013, 08:44:04 PM

That is awesome. I have a friend who used to tattoo for years, but to be honest I never knew anything about his machines even when he talked about them since I had no idea what he was talking about. I think i might have to send him a link to this thread.

Def