1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:08,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works? A brain 2 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:11,920 Speaker 1: stuff it's Christian Sager. If you like art, permanence or 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: shallow wounds, you may have a tattoo or I don't 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,800 Speaker 1: know seven and you're not alone. A Harris pull from 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: indicates that here in the US almost fort of adults 6 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: under the age of forty have at least one tattoo. 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,000 Speaker 1: So our question for the day is how do tattoo 8 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: machines work? And yes, the preferred industry term is tattoo machines, 9 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: not tattoo guns. As it turns out, the technology used 10 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: to apply tattoos hasn't changed all that much since the 11 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,559 Speaker 1: eighteen nineties. Before then, tattoos were given by tapping or 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,879 Speaker 1: just poking needles into the skin by hand. But at 13 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,720 Speaker 1: the turn of the twentie century, two groundbreaking patents were filed. 14 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: Each is basically a motorized array of solid needles connected 15 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: to an ink reservoir. When the needles pierce the skin, 16 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 1: the tips pull ink from the reservoir into the skin 17 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: and deposit it there. This happens because of surface tension 18 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: and capillary action, you know, the way that water will 19 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: stick a little bit higher up to the sides of 20 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,440 Speaker 1: a glass than its level in the middle. The close 21 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,559 Speaker 1: set needles of a tattooing device act the same way, 22 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: pulling the ink down. Some of it gets trapped in 23 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 1: the skin and eventually forms the tattoo. But let's look 24 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,240 Speaker 1: at these two different machines, which we should note probably 25 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 1: weren't the first of their kind ever used, just the 26 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: first to be patented. First, we've got New York City 27 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: tattoo artist Samuel O'Reilly's rotary machine, patented on December eight 28 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: He based the design on an electric pen patented by 29 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison in eighteen seventy six. The pen would punch 30 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: through paper to create a stencil of your writing, and 31 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: O'Reilly realized it could just as easily punch through skin 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: to create a tattoo. O'Reilly's motor is a rotary type, 33 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: meaning that when electricity is applied, a flywheel spins a 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: cam which pushes a follower to convert the spinning motion 35 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: into a reciprocating linear motion of the needles. Basically, the 36 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: needles move up and down. It's called reciprocating motion because 37 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,520 Speaker 1: every push down rotates the flywheel with enough force that 38 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: it will keep spinning just enough to pull the needles 39 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,520 Speaker 1: back up to their starting position, ready to be pushed 40 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: down again. This lets the needles move up and down 41 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: very smoothly and rapidly, applying the tattoo more easily than 42 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: most artists could manage via the traditional poking method. However, 43 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: this machine probably isn't what you think of when you 44 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: think of tattooing. Imagine the soundscape of a tattoo parlor 45 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: in your mind's ear. Do you hear a deep piercing buzz. Well, 46 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: that's the noise made by a coil tattoo machine. The 47 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: second design we're going to discuss today. The first patent 48 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: for it was granted on August twenty three, nineteen o four, 49 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 1: to Charles Wagner. He was another New York City tattoo 50 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,519 Speaker 1: artist who based his device on an Edison electric pen, 51 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: this one driven by electromagnetic coils. These coil designs lean 52 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: heavily on other machines from the eighteen sixties and seventies, telegraphs, doorbells, 53 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: and dental pluggers, which were used to push gold into cavities. 54 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: Believe it or not, the idea is simple. You attach 55 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: a group of needles perpendicular to an armature bar. That 56 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: bar is spring loaded so that it can vibrate up 57 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: and down. When it's in its up position, it completes 58 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: a circuit in the machine that sends electricity through dual 59 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: electromagnetic coils, and that creates an electromagnetic field that pulls 60 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: the bar down, which breaks the circuit and releases the 61 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: bar back to its up position, starting the cycle over again. 62 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: Since the tattoo needles are attached to the bar, the 63 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: vibrations push and pull them up and down. Lots of 64 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: innovators have built on these concepts, making tattoo machines safer, 65 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: more precise, and less painful for both the client and 66 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: the operator, and artists use a few other mechanical designs too. 67 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: Rotaries and coils are just the most common. Check out 68 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this 69 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:44,360 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.