All You Need to Know About How Tattoo Machine Works
So, I hear you’re interested in stepping into the realm of tattooing – is that true? If yes, then give yourself a nice pat on the back! Tattooing is an awesome yet underrated profession. In the beginning, you may not make a lot of money, but that’s alright. You just keep on honing your craft, be nice and honest to your clients and before you know it, you’ll get some serious bump in income.
You see guys, my income as a tattooist has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, so needless to say - life’s pretty good! I’m not here to brag or anything like that. The truth is I’m the type of guy who firmly believes in the concept of giving back. So that’s why I’m writing this article. It’s my way of giving back to the body art trade that has provided me with so much joy and fulfillment for the past 15 years.
In this article, I’m going to explain to aspiring tattooists about how tattoo machine works. Next, I’ll be writing another article containing step-by-step instructions on how to tune tattoo machines and also how to properly maintain them. I’m providing these valuable pieces of info because I’ve been getting a lot of queries from aspiring tattooists about them. Okay, I’m ready to clear up those queries. Let’s get the ball rolling on how tattoo machine works.
First of all, I want to let you know that electromagnetism is the reason tattoo machines work like they are supposed to. Electricity flows through the coils of the tattoo machines, thus the coils become magnetized as a result. When the coils are magnetized, the armature bar which is composed of metal, sticks to them and the needle gets pushed. When the armature bar sticks to the coils, electric current that flows through the coils earlier gets cut-off, so the magnetic fields drop.
Next, the spring belonging to the armature pulls it back thus hitting the screw which kicks the electricity back on. The coils gets recharged immediately after electricity is restored, therefore enabling the magnetic field to expand. This is a process that goes in cycles and in a rapid manner - roughly 100 cycles or so every second!
As you may already know, when a conductor gets passed through by electric current, a magnetic field is produced. This is something that we learned back in school, remember? I still remember the lesson my teacher taught to the whole classroom which involves a battery, a coiled wire along with a nail. That combination of items was able to move and attract paper clips! I remember being extremely fascinated by it all. Anyway, a tattoo machine works by this very same principle.
Taking the reverse approach, which means a conductor gets passed through a magnetic field instead of electric current, what does it produce? If you answered electricity, then give yourself another nice pat on the back!
But a coil of wire meets electricity induces a bunch of lines with magnetic force. It’s a kind of force that’s capable of slicing through those coils of wire. Expect a significant increase in voltage within the coil’s conductor due to the “slicing” effect, and some electronic parts can get ruined because of that.
What I just described to you is known as “self-induction.”It is a physics term and a very appropriate one because the significant increase in voltage is very much self- induced. A tattoo machine has two coils and if you were to connect only one of them to a power source, what will happen next? What’s going to happen next is the lines with magnetic force from the connected coil will induce significant voltage increase within both coils. Yes, that’s right guys. Even the coil that’s not connected will get a huge voltage boost as well!
The physics term for the occurrence I just described to you is known as “mutual-induction.” These two occurrences work within the tattoo machine on a perpetual basis. In other words, each time power gets connected and disconnected per pulse, voltage boost occurs due to the synergy between self-induction and mutual-induction. A tattoo machine equipped with a capacitor is important in this case. The capacitor basically serves as a filtering device for the huge voltage boost.
Filtering out voltage boost that can weaken your tattoo machine is what a capacitor is capable of doing, therefore dramatically improving the performance of the armature. A capacitor is great to have for sure, but you want to avoid using one of those excessively large capacitors because it can turn your tattoo machine into a big-time noise-making machine!
Next up, I’ll be teaching you guys how to tune tattoo machines and the proper way to maintain them (Update: Read the article here). Goodbye for now guys and thanks for checking out this article.
You see guys, my income as a tattooist has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, so needless to say - life’s pretty good! I’m not here to brag or anything like that. The truth is I’m the type of guy who firmly believes in the concept of giving back. So that’s why I’m writing this article. It’s my way of giving back to the body art trade that has provided me with so much joy and fulfillment for the past 15 years.
In this article, I’m going to explain to aspiring tattooists about how tattoo machine works. Next, I’ll be writing another article containing step-by-step instructions on how to tune tattoo machines and also how to properly maintain them. I’m providing these valuable pieces of info because I’ve been getting a lot of queries from aspiring tattooists about them. Okay, I’m ready to clear up those queries. Let’s get the ball rolling on how tattoo machine works.
First of all, I want to let you know that electromagnetism is the reason tattoo machines work like they are supposed to. Electricity flows through the coils of the tattoo machines, thus the coils become magnetized as a result. When the coils are magnetized, the armature bar which is composed of metal, sticks to them and the needle gets pushed. When the armature bar sticks to the coils, electric current that flows through the coils earlier gets cut-off, so the magnetic fields drop.
Next, the spring belonging to the armature pulls it back thus hitting the screw which kicks the electricity back on. The coils gets recharged immediately after electricity is restored, therefore enabling the magnetic field to expand. This is a process that goes in cycles and in a rapid manner - roughly 100 cycles or so every second!
As you may already know, when a conductor gets passed through by electric current, a magnetic field is produced. This is something that we learned back in school, remember? I still remember the lesson my teacher taught to the whole classroom which involves a battery, a coiled wire along with a nail. That combination of items was able to move and attract paper clips! I remember being extremely fascinated by it all. Anyway, a tattoo machine works by this very same principle.
Taking the reverse approach, which means a conductor gets passed through a magnetic field instead of electric current, what does it produce? If you answered electricity, then give yourself another nice pat on the back!
But a coil of wire meets electricity induces a bunch of lines with magnetic force. It’s a kind of force that’s capable of slicing through those coils of wire. Expect a significant increase in voltage within the coil’s conductor due to the “slicing” effect, and some electronic parts can get ruined because of that.
What I just described to you is known as “self-induction.”It is a physics term and a very appropriate one because the significant increase in voltage is very much self- induced. A tattoo machine has two coils and if you were to connect only one of them to a power source, what will happen next? What’s going to happen next is the lines with magnetic force from the connected coil will induce significant voltage increase within both coils. Yes, that’s right guys. Even the coil that’s not connected will get a huge voltage boost as well!
The physics term for the occurrence I just described to you is known as “mutual-induction.” These two occurrences work within the tattoo machine on a perpetual basis. In other words, each time power gets connected and disconnected per pulse, voltage boost occurs due to the synergy between self-induction and mutual-induction. A tattoo machine equipped with a capacitor is important in this case. The capacitor basically serves as a filtering device for the huge voltage boost.
Filtering out voltage boost that can weaken your tattoo machine is what a capacitor is capable of doing, therefore dramatically improving the performance of the armature. A capacitor is great to have for sure, but you want to avoid using one of those excessively large capacitors because it can turn your tattoo machine into a big-time noise-making machine!
Next up, I’ll be teaching you guys how to tune tattoo machines and the proper way to maintain them (Update: Read the article here). Goodbye for now guys and thanks for checking out this article.