As you probably know, rotary tattoo machine technology has come a long way in the last,
say decade, or so, and there's a lot of new terminology thrown around; there are a lot
of rotaries that perform one function really well and maybe another one not as well. Some work well
with cartridges, some don't. You know, what's the difference between a direct drive and something
with give? Why do you want give? All these types of things. And so I've wanted for a while,
to take a deep dive into that subject here on fireside technique, but it's not really my
wheelhouse. I tend to just buy a machine and learn how to use it and use it well. My buddy Ty Pelota,
on the other hand, loves to buy new machines all the time and tear them apart: figure out what
they do, what their functionality is, share his thoughts back with the machine builders to help
them improve, things like that. So since this is something that really is in his wheelhouse,
I invited him then to help us to dissect rotary tattoo machine technology and terminology,
and this is the first episode in this series. In this first one we're just
going to hit everything on the surface: get to know the terminology and what the difference
is in some of these machines actually are. Hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks.
Alright so we get so many questions on rotaries: what we're using, what voltages were running at,
what needle configurations, and so I invited you in because
you're way better at this than I am because you're, you know, a little off when it comes
to this stuff. You dive real deep. Yeah. Special. You're a little special. So let's talk. We have a
lot of machines right here, but unfortunately we don't have right in front of us all of the types
of machines we're going to review. We have several pin style machines here and there's a lot more
than that. This is just what happened to be with us when we're here at Hell City. So if you were,
for example, you tattooed a guy today that I tattooed on Friday. He's, what,
maybe six months into his apprenticeship? Yeah. Brett. Always watches the show. What's up dude.
What's up man. Thanks for the support. Yes, thank you man. Brett, for example, asks you,
"What is a direct drive, like, what does that even mean?" So if you were to take a bird's-eye
approach to someone that's just jumping into tattooing and were focusing on rotaries,
because that's obviously what seems to be taken over the tattoo industry these days.
What would you say are the major categories? Direct drive, which we'll get into later,
is what some people nickname a spinner. It is a drive bar connected to, if you're talking about
cartridges, directly to the motor. There's no give, there's no dampening system, it doesn't
back off at all. It just goes. Whatever it has to plow through it makes the motion, this way
you don't slow it down. By the way, you connect a full needle bar for a liner or a shader to it,
like you would on a Direkt 2 from FK Irons or the torsion bar from an Inkjecta. That is still,
even though it has a little bit of snap, it's a direct drive. Anything that doesn't have a spring
or rubber or any kind of dampening system: it's direct. It's gonna hit a hundred percent. It's not
gonna back off at all, and those type of machines tend to give a smaller dot when it hits the skin
than a machine with give. So give, meaning that there is some, when it meets resistance,
it reacts to that resistance in some way. Yeah. And so, why do you want that in a tattoo?
The give on a machine is going to give the needle a little bit extra hang time in the skin,
and that's gonna give you a little more saturation. It's also gonna leave a little
bit bigger of a dot in most cases, depending on how much give you have. If you have a lot
of give set it'll still leave a smaller dot, but that's when you get into a point where
it might not saturate as well. You might have it come back and it might heal a little light. It's a
balance: you can have too much give where you're not penetrating deep enough so you're just in
the surface of the skin and the epidermis. You're not penetrating. So it's a balance.
The direct drive, you don't have give, so it's in and out very quickly, right? Correct.
Which makes a smaller dot, whether people see that or not. Once you use them enough you see
like, this thing's leaving a finer dot. It's hitting hard. It's in and out so fast. I'm
not getting as much hang time in the skin to leave more pigment in the skin. I'm also just
working off the needle tips. When you're working with the direct drive, you're going more off of
feel and wrist control, which is gonna make you back off the skin a little bit,
leave a little bit, use your wrist a little less. You're not gonna whip your wrist and pack as hard.
So you're gonna work gently off the needle tips, which can make
a smaller dot in general.
Great for black and gray work.
Would it be fair to say that a direct drive
also has a potential for more skin trauma than something with more give?
If your hand isn't trained for it, you can do a lot of damage.
So the resistance, the machine responding to the resistance of the skin is actually
an effect that softens the the hit of the machine and allows
for you to move slower, more methodically and get better saturation, is that true?
If the weight the machine is correct on a machine with give,
your needle is gonna sit in the skin a little bit longer. In essence, in your rotation
it's going to be in the skin a little longer with the give, than it is going to be out of the skin.
So it's gonna leave a little bit more pigment, but also as it gives, the stroke length is going
to shorten a little bit and the spring or rubber is going to act as a secondary return. Even though
that it's dampening, it's also pushing gently to give you a little bit more pigment in the skin.
Okay. So how do cartridges come into play with this?
Because there are a lot of these machines
that are set up to handle cartridges and some that don't work well with carriages at all.
A lot of these machines, when you get into a cartridge machine, don't have any give
because they need that strength to push and react against that cartridge to continue that
stroke. It takes a little bit beefier motor to give you a little more give,
in my opinion. Which is why the FK Irons machine,
that thing with give has a much beefier motor than say like a Bishop,
which we don't have right now. Those have tiny ass motors because they're cyclic.
They don't need anything to push once something starts to give. They're just in and out of that
stroke. Your flywheel on some of those rotaries as well, it's a counterweight to help push it
through the skin. You'll see on an Inkjecta when that drive bar is going down my brass weight
is coming back around to give it the force to push it through that stroke. With a machine with give,
the give actually shortens the stroke length. In turn, when you're in the skin and you keep
that needle in the skin, it's a faster cycling which is going to allow you more saturation,
but with the way I always tell people, when you have give, you're creating resistance. Like in a
Zion here you have a spring and in an Ego machine you have rubber on some of their machines. In an
old Stigma machine you have a rubber. Any one of those, whether it's rubber or a spring, when you
start to give, it creates more resistance. So even though the stroke length is getting shorter that
rubber or that spring is pushing back. So your cartridge is pushing up, your force against the
skin is pushing up, but your spring and your rubber is pushing back against that so that it
allows you to stay in the skin longer, but it's also pushing back at you. So even though it's in
the skin longer, leaving more pigment, it's giving it the force to pack it solid. So you'll always
see on your machines with give that have the give set correctly, you will see a larger dot with the
same needle than you will see with a machine that has zero give -unless you have too much needle
hanging out. There's a fine balance.
Okay. What are examples of machines that have a lot of give, and if you were to
give brand names of direct drives have no give and machines that have a lot of give.
We'll talk about Stigma and FK Irons. Those are the two that stand out to me that are
real give machines. Everything that FK does is give-related,
except for their Direkt 2. That machine has no give.
Bishop Rotary, they don't believe in give at all. But if you look at their pro teams, FK Irons has
a lot more color guys, bishop rotary has a lot more black and gray guys.
It has nothing to do with the region of the
country they're in or the style of work they prefer,
a no give machine is a machine that's gonna leave a smaller dot,
which makes you rely more on your hand technique;
which means you're gonna have smaller dots because you're through the skin with a lot
of finesse and working just a little bit more
off the tips of the needles, a little bit more off your wrist control,
and a lot less aggressive in movement,
which is better for your black and gray. With a color machine that has give,
you can essentially set up the back of your liner or wherever you're gonna go,
you can drop that needle in,
the machine's gonna give a little bit, and you're just gonna be able to work.
You're gonna able to work off of your tube tip instead of working off of your needle tip,
which when you're talking about color work,
it's gonna be a lot more consistent. Because you can rest that tube tip on the skin and you
can do all your work while that thing's doing its give and pushing back at you and creating
a great saturation, a great blend, you can build things up or you can pack them in solid
depending on where you set your voltage where you set your give. A little more technical, yes.
Bishop will say train your wrist...why we don't
believe in give. If you're doing a lot of build-ups that's fine-
like Nikko Hurtado, doing a lot of color build ups.
That's that technique where he's using his wrist and he's working
slowly and he's building everything up. He doesn't need a machine with give.
If you're gonna work and do something that's blended or you're gonna pack some solid color,
give is gonna get that job done way faster.
Okay. So if you were a traditional Americana tattooist or a Japanese,
someone who puts in solid lines and solid color, you're not reliant on multiple passes,
building textures or layers over time, you would want more give?
I would. You can also create that with a
machine that has less give if it's a harder hitting machine,
but now you're talking about a really hard hit that just gets in and out
Where your rotary spinners that Bishop creates, they are not hard hitting machines. That
cyclic motion that they have, it's very smooth. It's gonna leave a smaller dot.
So another machine with very little give, might have a tiny bit of dampening in its mechanism
but not a lot of give, would be comparing to a Bishop to a Dan Kubin: Like Dan's new DMC machine.
That machine has a very small amount of give just because of the mechanism,
but that is a hard hitting machine that's made to pack -versus a solid spinner which doesn't
have a slap to it like a Bishop machine. They're both direct drives technically,
though one is going to really be coloring dense. Machines are designed to get
the job done efficiently, fast, their traditional machines solid real tattoos.
Bishops machines are gonna give you more of a build-up on a black and gray style
tattoo because of the style of the mechanism that that spinner is not created with a lot
of force behind it and that relies more on your wrist technique to make the job happen.
Gotcha, okay. Well, let's dive in on a couple of these different style machines, and like I said,
right now we don't have everything that we're talking about, but we have enough to give a little
bit of an example so in the next episode let's jump in to specifics and pick a single machine and
keep them from rattling, son of a [ __ ]. Let's pick that specific-
oh that's me
oh you're doing it
So in the next episode,
let's dive in to specific-
Next episode we'll do this on egg crate.
Thank you guys, we'll see you next time.