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...build a homemade tattoo gun?

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Answer by betterthanyou
Submitted on 7/18/2004
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Ok first of all I have nothing but "ghetto" tat's... but all of you seem to be pretty stupid. If you can't spell or use a spell check option the i don't advise building or operating a tattoo "machine".you need to truly think it out before you start turning your skin into hamburger. dont use guitar string unless you want a blury blown out tat,try stanless or surgical wire,dont use batteries,use AC, its more reliable and far more acurate,DO NOT USE ANY PLASTICS, only use metal.you cant autoclave plastic. DONT USE INK FROM BALL POINT PENS not only will it fade but the chemical make-up of the ink can cause some nasty infections.if your gonna f@#$ up your body atleast rise above the rest and get some india ink from an art store. it will last as long as you do. dont share a gun with anyone unless you know how to autoclave...isopropyl alchohol wont clean a gun weel enough to share it. so get off your asses and get jobs...save some money and get some real...professional...safe tats...they dont cost that much...

Answer by macca bastardo
Submitted on 7/18/2004
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to make a tatoo gun all you need is: first u need to get hold of a 12volt motor - lego technics kind. then a 10mm piece of lego technics glue one end of the pice of lego to the shaft. then get another shaft and glue it in the other end hole. then u will need a 3mm washer on the end of the shaft get a sewing needle and glue it to the washer. then get a pen lid and chop the end off and glue it to your motor with the needle sticking through it. slowly turn it with your hands to make sure it is running freely and smooth. then wire it up to a 12v power pack or wotever you have available the kind for a cb radio (preferably). and power up. you are now ready to tattoo. for more info or pics of mine contact me at macraboy@hotmail.com

Answer by kirk pitre
Submitted on 8/28/2004
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i think i know how 2 make one u bend a spoon/fork/tooth brush with no brissles one of them then u get a ink pin and take the ink stick out and to make the needle u take one of those red coffee straws and u put a sewing needle in it and heat the end and twist it around the neddle so it will hold the needle in place then u stick the needle in the empty ink pin and the u mount the engine take one out of a electric tooth brush um toy cars or any thing with a small engine then u wrap the shaft with tape stick a needle in it and burn the tape so the needle will stay and then adjust the hight of the needle then stick it through the engind needle that u mounted and plug it in {THATS HOW I MADE MYN} i am just curous on how 2 make it different ways

Answer by I know what I am talking about
Submitted on 10/27/2004
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After building your homemade gun, I suggest going to e-bay, or an on-line tattoo supply store, and buy your ink, there cause alot of time the ink you can buy in art stores contains lead, even india ink these days, I have looked into it. also you can get just as good a result with a home made gun if you build it right, then it is practice, and exp. after that, I am a tattoo flash design artist, and am good friends with a pro-tattooist, and he has been tattoo for 18 years, when he first started out he made a home made gun, and did some cool ass tattoos with it, before he bought a pro gun, and went into it full time, I my self am going to step up from designing tattoo's to doing tattooing after my training is done. A word of warning also never, ever use your home made gun on anyone but yourself for legal reasons, and even though you use your home made gun on just your self always keep the gun CLEAN, or later you WILL be sorry.... There are may ways to make a homade gun, my best advice is to look at a PRO-gun very well to give you Idea's on how to build it. also be very careful on how power you give the home made gun, cause if your a novice you can turn your skin to hamburger, causeing ugly scaring, also check the depth of your needle, you only need to go about a 1mm into the skin, there is alot more to tattooing than just picking up a gun. if ya want to progress faster in the art af tattooing seek out a tattooist that will train, but be ready to shell out around $10,000.00 for your training, and that not counting your equipment cost. Hope this helps.

Answer by Knifethrower
Submitted on 12/28/2004
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So you've decided that you want to make a homemade tattoo gun and say it's not about saving up the cash to get a professional one but its about having the machine and doing it yourelf, well here's the general method of making a homemade tattoo gun/machine. As others have advised before my post, professionally done tattoos are better quality, but I've seen some impressive work done with these "prison" machines. Your best option is to buy a coil type machine, they are used by the professionals and move straight up and down, transferring no wobble to the needle. Here are the directions for the home made machine: Materials: (if you don't understand just keep reading) 1 Electric Motor 1 Piece of Frame Material 2 Hose clamps one large one small or electrical tape 1 Pen, Mechanical Pencil, or similar tube 1 (or maybe 2) Needles 1 Power source 1 Paperclip or plastic ink tube inside pen Making the Frame: The first thing you must do is construct the frame. This can be done with alot of things but you need something to hold the motor and the pen / mechanical pencil together. The easiest way I found was using a spoon. First bend the head of the spoon back and forth until it comes off. You should be left with only the spoon's handle. Now bend the piece to a right angle (90 degrees); you should have an L shaped spoon handle. The Motor: The electric motor can be taken from some toys and devices (electric toothbrushes, remote controlled cars, pencil sharpeners) but I suggest going to radioshack and shelling out about 6 dollars for an electric motor there. One that runs on at least 7 volts or more should do. By more I mean up to 12 volts. It should say on the package what it runs on. Ink Tube: No not the ink tube inside your pen, but the tattoo guns ink tube is what I mean here. This is where the ink waits to go into the skin. A pen or mechincal pencil can be used. Simply take out everything inside of the pen/pencil and cut it to be about 3 inches long. You can cut it with a knife or use a saw, leaving the end that was used to write. Needle & Needle Bar: This is the needle that punctures your skin and the bar that holds it. The bar can be either a paperclip or the plastic ink tube inside of a pen. If you are going to use a pereclip then you will need to straigthen it out and solder the needle to the end of the paperclip. Wrapping thread around the needle and paperclip while applying glue will also make it hold. Wrap tightly. If you want to use the tube out of a pen you will need to empty out the ink inside of the tube by poking holes inthe ends and blowing the ink out, then washing the tube. Stuff the end of the plastic tube with something such as a toothpick while leaving a little room. Stuff the needle in pointed side out, being careful, assuring that it is a tight fit so that the needle does not move in and out easily. Putting it all together: The electric motor should be placed onto one side of the spoon handle frame with the shaft of the motor sticking out a little. Use the hose clamp or electrical tape to secure it. The hollowed out and cut pen or pencil should be placed on the other part of the frame and secured in the same manner with the other hose clamp. See: -[motor] ------- p \| e \| n \/ The dotted lines/dashes represent the L shaped frame. The word motor in brackets is where the motor should be. The line coming out of the motor is the the shaft and should be placed abouve the pen/pencil. The word pen represents the pen or mechanical pencil. The two slashes (\/) are the tip of the pen/pencil. Now if you set your ink tube inside the hollow pen/pencil with needle pointing down and push it up and down you should get an idea of how its going to work. The motor will turn and push the bar up and down, while the needle goes through the end of the pen (which hold the ink) into ones skin. Now for the drive mechanism. Drive mechanism: There are two ways to do this depending on which needle bar you chose to make. The one with the tube or the one with the paperclip. If you choose the paperclip you will need to make an extension to the motors shaft and offset it. All this means is taking a piece of paperclip and soldering or thread+glueing (read up above in needle bar section if you dont understand thread+glue) it onto the motors shaft. Then bend it slightly away from the shaft. You can adjust this later to make the needle go up and down more or less. The paperclip extension should stick out more than the shaft. The extension should not be very long; just enough to do the job. Now trim the paperclip you used for the needle bar to a good size and make a small loop at the end, just large enough to fit onto the shaft extension. If the loop is too large there will be lots of wobbling and it will wear out quickly. Place the loop onto the shaft extension, making sure the needle bar is in the ink tube(the hollow pen) and give the motor power. 7 volts is as fast as you want to go but you can test it out with lower volages just to see it work. If you chose to use the ink tube inside the pen for a needle bar, then you will need an extra needle. Attach this needle to the shaft in one of the ways in the section above or by using a piece of the tube and melting it around the needle and shaft to make them stay together. Instead of making a loop in the paperclip needle bar in the method above, you will pust the plastic tube onto the needle thats attched to the shaft. Apply power and see it work. A rubber band can be used to stabilize the needle by wrappign it around the motor and needle bar. It helps to keep it from vibrating right off of the motors shaft extension and makes the needle go straighter. As for power a variable volatage adapter isconvenient, but you can use batteries and all sort of other power sources. If you ahve questions or if the fomatting of my picture example comes out bad, then feel free to e-mail me at hacker1987@awesomenet.net

Answer by Big daddy juggalo
Submitted on 1/19/2005
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I'll tell you all how to make one .take a motor from an remote control car or cd player or even a tooth brush. take a plug in cord with a fat bottom like the ones on shave charges dont dont use regular cordes cause it will blow the motor then cut the cord and wire them to the bottom of the motor. if its a cd player motor wich i recomend. it should have a black ring on top melt a paper clip into the outer side. then take a metal pen and remove inside. tape the pen on top a fork right in front of the paper clip so the paper clip make a circular motin in front of the pen now for the needele take a pen shell(part with the ink in it) and blow in it to remove most ink then run hot water through it now melt a neddle to the front take the neddle stick it in the hole the heat the out side and spin the plastic with finger until neddle is snug but still moblie not put a hole in the end to attach to the papper clip and it should make a recieprecating motion thus makeing the neddle back and forth. if you have any ?'s email me at juggalo_ryda_lyman@yahoo.com oh ya p.s. you can you regular ink but it dont stay so for the at home tattoo artist you better you india ink you can steel or buy from staples or walmart or most dep. stores

Answer by fuknut
Submitted on 2/27/2005
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I am not responsible for any mis use of these instructions.they are for educational purposes. easy as hell instructions: tooth brush small engine(disc man,RC car,VCR exc.) TV to VCR cable connector,(the copper kind) wire battery pack or 6-12volt DC adapter tape ball point pen heat and bend the toothbrush to a 90 degree angle.Then line the axle of the small engine up with the handle of the toothbrush.Tape in place.take a button ,plastic gear from RC car that will fit engine,or if desperate you can use a eraser.If using either the button or the eraser make a hole the size of the axle of the engine as centered as possible.If using the plastic gear the centered hole should already be there.Take your button,eraser,or gear and make an off centered whole the size of the copper cable wire you pulled out of your VCR to TV connector.Now glue your button,eraser,or gear to your engines axle.make sure it spins smooth.After you strip the black cover off the cable wire, Bend your wire at the top to a 90 degree angle about bend it to about half the size of your eraser,or just until it goes threw the off centered hole in your button or gear.sharpen the tip of it using a nail file,file on toe nail clippers or a file.Get it as sharp as possible.Test it by poking your skin,when it pokes threw easily without drawing blood your good.now take your ball point pen and file the tip off it.tape your pen to the handle of the toothbrush,make sure that it is lined up with your engine.take your cable wire and put it through your pen then attach the bent part of the wire to your eraser,button or gear where you made your off centered hole.Hook the wires from the engine to a power source,i prefer taking the 9 volt battery connection from a smoke detector.You might need to take a rubber band to hold the cable wire into your eraser,gear,or button.You do that by putting it over then pen and toothbrush handle loosely.now you have a fully functional homemade tattoo gun.There better then having it done by pros because the tats you do have sentimental value,that you remember for the rest of your life.I have been doing tattoos for 5 years using a homemade gun the exact way i have listed and it works great.Questions? Comments? email me at bluntmann6@yahoo.com

Answer by gunja hustling kid
Submitted on 3/24/2005
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i have some advice for some tatoo home made gun in our country we use some fork a machine and a led pencil and we use some guitar string number 3 for the nidle and for the ink we mix indian ink and bolpen ink to be thiker and if you want to build a home made gun start with the fork bend it so that theres a place for yhe machine and glue the pencil with the fork and tape it and fore he nidle bend a number 5 string and glue it with the machine and put some wire and batery the bigast batery you have or you can use 5 doble a bateries to speed up the motor and put some wire to conect the batery and the machine together and your done you can tattoo with your friends or love ones and fuk up to gether with your chiks and thats it

Answer by penStateInMate
Submitted on 5/20/2005
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I have to first agree with �betterthanyou� about spelling, although I found it pretty freakin funny that he had a typo in his/her posting as well :-) I also have to wonder if there is any interest in this idiocy any longer since the most recent posting was ten months ago, but just in case anyone is thinking about doing this stupid sht on their own; I thought I would pass along a little advice. I have spent time in a state funded hotel where the most abundant resource is time. This leads to some pretty innovative devices for skin "art" if you can even call it that. The way it went at my former home was extremely simple. The only thing that was needed was an ink pen (yes, this will most likely give you an infection at the very least; see below), some elastic from a sock, and a safety pen. The basic process involves extracting the ink from the pen by ripping the end off and blowing the ink out into any receptacle, like a paper cup. Then, wrap the elastic around the safety pen and dip it in the ink. Then you prick your skin a million times with the dull as sht safety pen. Is this permanent? It depends on how deep you stick the safety pen into your skin, but it is, of course, not the smartest ink to use. Is it safe? HELL NO! I saw more of my "neighbors" got to the infirmary because of abscesses and infection as a result of this practice than due to any other reason. Is it a good thing to do if you have 2 to 5 years to kill? It depends if you want a permanent reminder of your vacation or the stupidity of youth. By the way, not only are you likely to get an infection and/or abscess, but you are also likely to get blood poisoning and possibly AIDS. What a great souvenir! So, if you cannot read between the lines, it is best to leave tattoos to the experts. If you actually believe, like "Pinhead" said that you cannot get an original tattoo from a pro, you really are an idiot. You can always design your own tattoo and take your design to a pro and have him do it for you. It is worth the cost. Finally, if you cannot think of anything more creative to do than scar yourself for life, I would suggest that you make the homemade tattoo on your penis. Then it might fall off and through natural selection keep later generations from making the same mistake. Of course, how smart can I be since I spent time in the penitentiary?

Answer by Experienced from India
Submitted on 5/24/2005
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You don't always have to use a machine... If you are a good artist, make a mixture of coal & water (or indian ink, if you think it'll stay wet enough) and draw what you want on you. Then (pre-drawing, make this), take a popsicle stick or something like that w/however many needles you'd like to use and tap it down on the skin, hard enough to draw blood. Make sure that the ink is still wet when you do this, however, or youll just be drawing blood the entire time. If it's too light, wait a day and do it again (since its not sich a concentrated measure, you can do it more frequently). This way, you can get several different colors and shading right (WARNING: This is a very drawn-out, long way to do anything but small tattoos) Hope that helped!

Answer by Lil mike
Submitted on 8/18/2005
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if u aint got the money or the brains to get sum ink from the store then do what i did wen i was locked... get a shoe box and burn the inside top part... let it catch fire then blow it out and let the ash go red for a little bit... then sracpe it off in to a contanor of some sort.. then pour a small amount of vinager in the contanor.. smash the ash around in the vinager for a little bit... the amont of vinager depends on the amount of ash in the contanor... the wen you're done smashing the ash around.. get sum ash out put it on your skin where u want it and start useing ur machine... all my tats were with a hand powered needle because i was locked up... but if that does not work or if u can get sum india ink form the store

Answer by tattoosmartass
Submitted on 8/22/2005
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I used a VCR not only for the motor but also the the base it was attached to then I took 2 dart handles the metal kind tied them together and screwed one into the base that the motor is on w/a screw that fit then I spooled wire around the dart handles and a pen I cut to size then I ran electrical tape around that I soldered a 7AC volt power adapter to the motor I took the switch out of a flash light and cut and wired it into the adapter wire then I taped the switch to the side of the handle with white medical tape for the rotary I cut and melted a plastic piece from the VCR and took a metal strip of wire and ran it through the eye of a sewing needle then rapped it around the needle a few times I then super glued some sewing thread around the needle leaving the tip exposed and there you have it one grade a tattoo gun I got my India ink from wal-mart for $2.89 IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS E-MAIL ME AT caldwell2020@hotmail.com

Answer by guitargurunate
Submitted on 9/15/2005
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After reading all of the designs on the web, I combined them and came up with a pretty good homemade machine. I got a Microscreen Tct2 electric razor. Took it apart and clipped the wires from the motor to the battery pack/board(you will see when you take it apart). Bent a butter knife in the shape of a 7, and attached the motor to the shorter side. Then opened a pen and taped the barrel to the knife. Next I got a button with two holes and superglued the shaft of the motor to one of the holes. To make the needle I got one of the large size paper clips. Emptied the ink out of the pen and cut the tip off. I inserted a needle into one end and melted the plastic inside to the needle using a lighter. I straightened the paper clip out and melted inside the plastic piece also. Bent the end of the paper clip and put it into the other hole. Ran wires from the small pieces left on the motor to the small pieces from the battery pack. Walla, you are done. It is cool cause it is rechargeable. Any questions feel free to email me at guitarcenterseller@yahoo.com good luck.

Answer by midnight_toker_289
Submitted on 9/19/2005
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if u want to make an easy tattoo gun all u need to do is get one pen shaft one tooth brush a guitar string a engine any size will work depends on how fast u want it to go some wire a battery pack and some batteries a lighter a eraser off a pencil and some electrical tape first u burn the tooth brush into a 7 shape then u wire up the engine to the battery pack then u tape the pen shaft to the tooth brush and put the eraser on the engine and bend the guitar string a little on the end and stick it in the eraser some where but u do not want it to be centered and then tape the battery and engine to the top of the tooth brush and stick the guitar string in the pen shaft and then dip it ink and have fun.

Answer by Halo
Submitted on 9/26/2005
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First off, using an eraser is stupid, after a while the rubber will wear down. I have a much simpler way to make things work. First off go a garage sale and buy an old Play station control (the kind that vibrate) tear it apart and use the vibration motor. Take a METAL clothes hanger and bend it at a 90 degree angle and loop the top around to make a circle. mount the motor to that. Then take a mechanical pencil, NOT A HALLOW PEN and put a guitar string through that. Mount the guitar string to another end of a hanger, a little longer then the pencil. take a coke lid (from a non returnable) cut the threaded part off and use the top. put a hole the same size as the motor and melt that on there. Guitar strings are not the best to use, put there better then sewing needles, trust me i know i have been doing this for quite some time...about 5 years now. just take the two wires from the motor and hook up a nine volt battery.......and as for BETTERTHENYOU......you need spell check...WELL not weel, also tattoos do NOT mess up your body unless you take proper care of them, and INDIAN ink is best to use and is cheaper then some of the cobalt inks used.

Answer by NattyRainbows
Submitted on 11/8/2005
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Not sure if i understand all this at all....? i got the motor out of a cassette recorder little larger than a walkman but for same purpose except it was able to record as well... i am figuring the part that is the motor is the part that had the wires coming from it and had the wheel to turn the actual cassette tape....(with rubber belt on it)? i hooked a 9 volt to this part and the top(where rubber belt came from) spins around and around on it....?? figuring the part is correct and is the same motor you all are talking about. i dont get how from this part i go to the wire and tube and then the needle at the end? i have several nice mechanical metal pencils and pens here and i play the guitar soooo? just really confused on how it all goes together and works.... will not try to give myself a tat till i get it all worked out of course and looking into indian (black) ink from maybe michaels crafts etc...? just from what i have read it is decent just turns maybe bluish later or even fades? someone bring me up to speed on that as well (INK)? everything i click(website gun making wise) on is down or frozen...?? or just goneeeeeeeee~!~ somoeones taking it off the net faster than it can be put on here...for obvious reasons of safety i am sure..? i have a couple of tats that i got years ago from a homemade gun and i seen the guy pull the needles from a new pack and use clean items and gloves,... friend of a friend.. also i cant get a tattoo legally in my state yet anyways~!~ in sc its illegal but up to be voted legal soon we all hope... these were of course illegal i got from him but so what cost me 20 bucks and was safe...!! i really would like to understand how to make this gun... you can catch me at standingbearz on yahoo or email at same address... make sure with a z not a s on standingbearz.. is up to you if you even feel like taking time to help someone understand this body art made at home tool. or you can drop by my site [url]http://com5.runboard.com/bdreamlocks[/url] and join and post something back to me one... either is fine... site is still new and being updated weekly.. much obligued(tips hat) peace and blessings chai

Answer by wayne G
Submitted on 12/17/2005
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if you want to make a good tat gun all you neep is some electric tape a bic ink pin a beeding needle or guitar string and a motor out of something i prefer a vcr the motors are powerful you also need a peice of matal that you can bend ok the first step is to take the pen a part and drain the ink out of the tube te cut a small peice of the end about1/2 an inch then you take the peice of metal and bend it to a 90 degree angle set te motor on one end facing the bended part so thatthe spinning part of the motor hangs of then wrap some tape around it to hold it on tight the you take a peice of the needle and break it of about 1 centimeter then poke it throuh the pen tube then bend it about half way through the tube then take the peice of the tube that you cut and stick the straight end of the needle into it then slide it on the spinning part of the motor then smach the tube down at the bottom wit a parr of pliers thentakesome string or dental floss id prefer floss and tie the beeding needle to the tube then slide the pen part on taping it to the other side of the bent metal then add the tpi of the pin making sure that the needle sticks trough ajust it where the needle only comes out about 1/2 a centimeter turn the motor to make sure then just steal a cell phone charger cut of the end the pluggs into he phone strip about a centimeter of the end and attach it to the motor you should solder it it will keep it from pull ing the wire of then get some ink and get to slingin

Answer by wayne G
Submitted on 12/17/2005
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if you want to make a good tat gun all you neep is some electric tape a bic ink pin a beeding needle or guitar string and a motor out of something i prefer a vcr the motors are powerful you also need a peice of matal that you can bend ok the first step is to take the pen a part and drain the ink out of the tube te cut a small peice of the end about1/2 an inch then you take the peice of metal and bend it to a 90 degree angle set te motor on one end facing the bended part so thatthe spinning part of the motor hangs of then wrap some tape around it to hold it on tight the you take a peice of the needle and break it of about 1 centimeter then poke it throuh the pen tube then bend it about half way through the tube then take the peice of the tube that you cut and stick the straight end of the needle into it then slide it on the spinning part of the motor then smach the tube down at the bottom wit a parr of pliers thentakesome string or dental floss id prefer floss and tie the beeding needle to the tube then slide the pen part on taping it to the other side of the bent metal then add the tpi of the pin making sure that the needle sticks trough ajust it where the needle only comes out about 1/2 a centimeter turn the motor to make sure then just steal a cell phone charger cut of the end the pluggs into he phone strip about a centimeter of the end and attach it to the motor you should solder it it will keep it from pull ing the wire of then get some ink and get to slingin