A Brief History of Tattoos
Thanks to the electric tattoo machine, getting a tattoo today is far less painful. Modeled after Edison’s autographic printer, Samuel O’Reilly invented the modern tattoo machine in 1891. The machine works by using a hollow needle filled with ink. As an electric motor vibrates the needle in and out of the skin (up to 30,000 times a minute) a tiny drop of ink is deposited 1/8th of an inch below the surface of the skin. Tattooing had a difficult time finding popularity in America during the 1900. After the war, most Americans associated tattoos with delinquent outcasts. Then, the early sixties saw a hepatitis outbreak and much press on blood poisoning and other diseases associated with un-sterilized tattoo needles. Tattooing found a Renaissance in the late 1960s. This resurgence was fueled by new techniques and styles. One such innovator was Lyle Tuttle from San Francisco, who is often considered the father of modern tattooing. He was handsome and articulate about the medium and its history and therefore got the attention of magazines and television. He tattooed celebrities, particularly women, putting a little heart on Janis Joplin. The popularization of woman getting tattoos softened the art form allowing it’s eventual entry into mainstream American culture. Today tattoos are more popular with woman than men with 23% of woman having at least one tattoo compared to 19% of men. |
![]() |