Dustingormley

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

The mechanics of a coil machine vs a rotary are different, the way the needle moves in/out of the skin and the feel/feedback it gives the tattooer.
To use a coil machine effectively a tattooer needs to understand how to build/tune/setup the machine for the way they tattoo. And that may be why a lot of tattooers use rotaries these days...convenience. Rotaries are more forgiving in terms of overworking the skin, lighter weight i.e. reduces strain on the tattooer, they are easy to procure, good to go out of the box and can facilitate faster tattooing (if you they know what they are doing). Coils can achieve the same things but come with a steeper learning curve to understand the mechanics, optimize the geometry of the machine build and dial in the tune for their method.
My tattooer who uses coils exclusively, he knows how to setup his machines and can spec a machine build to compliment his methods. And boy, you can feel that control when he tattoos. wow. He can really achieve the subtle details, the smoothness in his gradients because of the way he can achieve finer control with coils, that perhaps could not be achieved with the out-of-the-box characteristics of the rotary. His coil tattoos heal like butter everytime like clockwork. Because of the optimized setup, experience and skilled hand doing the tattooing.
I also have another tattooer who is on the rotary train (the first rotary I experienced) and runs it bastard hot (sounds like a coil) and can utilize the rotary to compliment his speed and methods. His rotary tattoos hurt like hell, however go in smooth, colours stay ultra-bright after long-term healing and he is FAST.
Me...I like the LOUD noise, I like the pain, I like the mechanics. So whichever side of the rotary vs coil debate my tattooer is on, doesn't matter because I gain a better understanding of the big picture of tattooing when I'm on the receiving end of either method.
I just love good ol ELECTRIC tattooin! The louder the more electric the better :cool:

Jake Arnette does some pretty sick traditional frogs https://instagram.com/handsomejaketattooer/

Ive seen guys use both. Most just tell me they use the rotary because it's a quiet machine. In the end, you're getting bunches on needles dug into your skin. It hurts and there's no way around that unless you use numbing cream (which is very expensive if you want the stuff that works.)
There are two things I know about tattoos for sure. Tattoos hurt and tattoos are permanent.
That's kinda why I like em

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

Jake Arnette does some pretty sick traditional frogs https://instagram.com/handsomejaketattooer/

Jake Arnette does some pretty sick traditional frogs https://instagram.com/handsomejaketattooer/

Jake Arnette does some pretty sick traditional frogs https://instagram.com/handsomejaketattooer/

Jake Arnette does some pretty sick traditional frogs https://instagram.com/handsomejaketattooer/

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

I told my teacher a funny story that had to do with a gardening experiment and the law. One of his clients canceled the night after so he tattooed this design on me. :cool:

Mine was around 4 - 5 hours. I flew to NYC and took a cab straight to the shop (which opened two hours later.) After the tattoo I was totally out of it from sleep exhaustion. Wish I would have been in a better state of mind so I could have talked to the artists more, but I needed sleep. Mike R did the tattoo, awesome dude and his shop is out of this world.