How Do Tattoos and Tattoo Machines Work?
A chef, Edwin Hammond Meredith lives in the Florida Keys. Recreationally, Edwin Hammond Meredith pursues a number of different interests, including tattoos, an art form with a long history.
Traditional tattooing involves the use of single needles, but modern tattooing evolved in the late 1800s when Samuel O’Reilly invented the first tattoo machine. His invention, which remains very similar to the tattoo machines used today, is based on the autographic print, a Thomas Edison machine used to engrave.
O’Reilly made slight modifications to Edison’s design by changing the tube system so that it could draw ink and creating a rotary-driven oscillating unit that uses electromagnetism to drive needles. The whole machine is driven by an electric motor controlled by a foot pedal.
Needles in the machine oscillate anywhere between 50 and 3,000 times per minute. The needles are not hollow, but rather solid. When they penetrate the skin, the needles push deposits of ink about a millimeter below the surface in the dermis.
The point of the machine is to push ink past the epidermis, an unstable part of the skin that sheds constantly, to the dermis where it can sit stably. When viewing a person’s tattoos, the ink is actually seen through the epidermis.
Traditional tattooing involves the use of single needles, but modern tattooing evolved in the late 1800s when Samuel O’Reilly invented the first tattoo machine. His invention, which remains very similar to the tattoo machines used today, is based on the autographic print, a Thomas Edison machine used to engrave.
O’Reilly made slight modifications to Edison’s design by changing the tube system so that it could draw ink and creating a rotary-driven oscillating unit that uses electromagnetism to drive needles. The whole machine is driven by an electric motor controlled by a foot pedal.
Needles in the machine oscillate anywhere between 50 and 3,000 times per minute. The needles are not hollow, but rather solid. When they penetrate the skin, the needles push deposits of ink about a millimeter below the surface in the dermis.
The point of the machine is to push ink past the epidermis, an unstable part of the skin that sheds constantly, to the dermis where it can sit stably. When viewing a person’s tattoos, the ink is actually seen through the epidermis.
