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...make a home made tattoo gun?

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Answer by Chris Jesso
Submitted on 1/9/2004
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: Make a Tattoo Gun I've personally used this so I know it works... Things you'll need: * bic pen (this is your tube that houses the needle) * 4 or 5" section of guitar string ,second one from the smallest. ( this is your needle) * tooth brush ( this gets bent like a "7" and joins the pen to the motor) * an eraser from a pencil (this joins the shaft of the motor to the needle/guitar string) * small battery operated motor (from a "walkman" or a hand held fan) * some tape (to join everything together) Putting the pieces together: 1. Take the guitar string and bend a little bit of the end down or up. 2. Take out the ink tube of the pen, and cut it to about a 3 or 4" length, now file down the brass tip of the pen to get the ball out, make the hole big enough to allow passage of the needle. 3. Insert the needle into the pen. 4. Now take the tooth brush and cut off the bristles making it about 4" long. Heat it up in the middle with a lighter and bend it in to a "7" and hold in place untill stiff. 5. Join/tape the pen needle assembly to the tooth brush. 6. Now take the eraser from the pencil and shove it onto the shaft of the motor, try to get it as dead center as possible. Join the pen/needle/tooth brush to the motor/eraser assembly, tape the brush to the motor. 7. Take the bent part of the needle/guitar stirng and stick it into the eraser, IMPORTANT- the needle must be purposely OFF CENTER. 8. Now all that is left to do is find a power source, I used the plug-in adapter frrom a cd player. i guess you could hook up some batteries to a switch and then to the contacts of the motor.

Answer by chris_right_here@hotmail.com
Submitted on 2/11/2004
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i know all of u first timers need to know how to make a tattoo guna nd i know the perfect way and i know how to make it shade and line so if u want to contact me u can at chris_right_here@hotmail and i will show u step by step how to make a gun, make it work better and every thing elsa u need to know...i also sell homemade tattoo kits that cum wit with: 1 gun and power supply, 1 needle, and 1 bottle of ink for $50......as everyone keeps in mind that $50 is alot and noone knows if their going to get riped off or not but i will in shore u give me an address and everything i need and ull get it....for any other questions add me or contact me at chris_right_here@hhotmail.com

Answer by Featherwood Witch
Submitted on 2/26/2004
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I would appreciate anyone's idea's and their version of the best homemade tattoo gun! I might just put a few different ones together and go from there. I have most commonly heard of the walkman motor and guitar string. I was trippen when I saw the idea of the spinbrush; cause I was just wondering about that one tonight. I'm just not sure about the whole hookup thing. I need to make one; so I can do my own work for myself..It will definately be a work in progress; I need to inflict a little pain in a constructive way, when I go into a rage; the only thing to bring me back is a little physical pain! That's a 2 for 1 deal, huh? Seriously; anyone who can lead me through the construction of the gun; please contact me!! Thanks alot...hopefully soon to sling some ink. e-mail: Featherwood-Witch@myway.com or Featherwood-Witch@prodigy.net

Answer by Matt
Submitted on 3/1/2004
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Hey Peckerhead, shut up man. Anyway, don't buy these kits and guns people try to sell, just use the universal plan that's all over the web (toothbrush, walkman motor...) go ahead and invest 10 bucks. Go to radio shack and a dollar store (NC and NY have dollar trees around every corner) and buy (from radio shack) 1 9-18 volt motor (9-18 is one motor, will take any power supply inbetween)(2.99), 1 push button on/off switch (smallest you can find, not momentary on, but on/off)(2.99) 1 pack of 9-volt battery hookups (1.99), 1 9-volt battery fixture (1.99), next go to the dollar store. Get one toothbrush (1$, get two if you think you'll screw it up the first try,) one ball point pen (pack of 3-12, 1$) 1 9-volt battery. Hit a music shop for the guitar string. there, Mine's rather nice, asteticaly and functionaly. I used gold wire to hold everything in place, carved nooks into the plastic so the wire would stay snug, soldered the connections(this isn't necessary, can just loop wire through holes in connections on switch and motor and wrap.) Enjoy.

Answer by Tattooed_and_Proud
Submitted on 3/23/2004
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All these people making and selling tattoo guns here are a trip, $70.00 to $150. a shot. You can get a real tattoo gun from a company for a little over $100. and they're great! The most reasonable price I've found in here for a Homemade gun is from Little Bear. I'm an artist myself and I'm thinking about getting one of these homemade guns just to play with, but I do professional work and I use a real tat gun. However these homemade single needle guns are fun to learn with and if you know what you're doing the work is clean. My advise to those of you wanting a tattoo gun - jonesing for ink: just dish out the cash for a professional to lay something nice out on you, and if you go out and get one of these homemade guns- just take your time and be careful. Have fun pep's.

Answer by Evil_Smurf_Godd
Submitted on 4/1/2004
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Ok, look... that tattoo gun you make out of a spoon and bic pen is pretty easy, I made one this past week and was going to try it out on my wife's ankle this weekend. to answer all questions I have read so far... the needle should go into the skin about 1/16 of an inch. the needle hooks up to an Eraser that you put on the motor(centered) and the needle off center so that it will go up and down while the motor spins. I have some pics of mine if you wanna e-mail me for them, I will be happy to send them with any other info you need... Ins4neJugg4lo@hotmail.com On the other hand, I am looking for a "professional" machine with power supply and foot pedal & cords. If you have one that you would like to sell, feel free to e-mail me and we will work out a deal. even a small kit with everything you need would be nice, just something to get me started with a real machine(not that the homemade ones are bad at all, but in a shop, its a little hard to use on others with there confidence). and please use TATTOO for the Subject cause I have a filter but I do check junk mail too....

Answer by Hermit
Submitted on 4/3/2004
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Don't use sewing machine needles, as they are the wrong shape, so slice the skin rather than puncture it, causing a lot more pain and packing a lot less ink in. You need a normal round needle, the point should be round cone-shaped. True tattoo needles are considerably smaller than normal needles used for sewing, though. As far as inks go, Indian ink is generally considered very safe, but over time the colour will go bluish rather than black. It is possible (but not recommended) to use some face paint colours, as long as they are labelled "non toxic" and safe for use with children. Only do a small test first, then wait three weeks to see how your skin reacts before doing a full tatt. Note: the finished colour in the skin may appear different than the colour did in the jar. Follow this advice at your own risk. For more info go to http://www.tmbamall.com/hermitware/tattooing.htm.

Answer by mordigen
Submitted on 4/6/2004
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I have made a tattoo machine from a crest spin-brush motor -- it works quite well, but I'm using the battery pack from the toothbrush as the power source. This can get a bit frustrating to work with, making the machine top-heavy and harder to handle properly. I was curious if anyone could email me with how I can hook-up an ac adaptor to it so I can get rid of the battery pack-- I've been having some trouble with it. I'm not so good with electronics and such, the pretty much only thing I know is that you have to keep the current flowing, I've tried SEVERAL different ways of hooking up an adapter, but they all seem to fail me. Just curious if there is anyone out there using a spin-brush motored machine that can tell me how I can hook up an ac adapter to it correctly. my email is nemesis_mirage@hotmail.com many thanks -m

Answer by hecksta
Submitted on 4/16/2004
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hey i have been doing a lot of tattoos over the past few years and i believe you can make a tattoo gun with whatever you belive you can. i will tell you real quick how to make a sanitary yet homemade gun. first you need a stainless steel pen tube you can use a paper clip to hold the needle a sewing needle as thinest as possible some thread to hold the needle and paper clip together a spoon or toothbrush and bend it like a 7 then a eraser to insert the paper clip you need to put the motor in top of this seven that you have folder secure it then secure the long length size of the seven that you have folded to the side of the stainless steel pen. then you proceed to length the large paper clip so it is straight then you make a small seven in the top of the paper clip so you can insert it to the eraser that has been inserted to the motors spinning thing you then tie in circles not that much the needle to the other end of the paper clip and you insert it in the stainless steel pen. the small seven that has been done to the paper clip insert it in the eraser of the pencil not in the same whole but next to the same whole of the eraser which is attached to the motor. then find a power supply and vualaugh you got a tat gun.

Answer by hecksta
Submitted on 4/16/2004
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hey i have been doing a lot of tattoos over the past few years and i believe you can make a tattoo gun with whatever you belive you can. i will tell you real quick how to make a sanitary yet homemade gun. first you need a stainless steel pen tube you can use a paper clip to hold the needle a sewing needle as thinest as possible some thread to hold the needle and paper clip together a spoon or toothbrush and bend it like a 7 then a eraser to insert the paper clip you need to put the motor in top of this seven that you have folder secure it then secure the long length size of the seven that you have folded to the side of the stainless steel pen. then you proceed to length the large paper clip so it is straight then you make a small seven in the top of the paper clip so you can insert it to the eraser that has been inserted to the motors spinning thing you then tie in circles not that much the needle to the other end of the paper clip and you insert it in the stainless steel pen. the small seven that has been done to the paper clip insert it in the eraser of the pencil not in the same whole but next to the same whole of the eraser which is attached to the motor. then find a power supply and vualaugh you got a tat gun. email me for some pics if you would like janelleheck04@yahoo.com

Answer by joker
Submitted on 5/9/2004
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hey sup peeps. look this is how you make a tat gun with a crest spine brush. 1. get some wire cutters first and then take off the brush.then after that get some needle(sharp works better)and thread. 2.Thread need for like about 30 feet long. and then let it stay there. 3.back 2 the wire cutters. if you twist and take off the brush you see a white little cirle that is covering this mettle part. just cut off that white plastic part with the wire cutters and then there should only b that mettle part there thats like a little bar. 4.now take the need and thread(this is nerve racking)and wind around it the mettle little bar. until sucure.(you might need a little more thread. then after you wind around the mettle bar and the needle leavin about 3mm left of the needle then your done.

Answer by junkbox
Submitted on 5/15/2004
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Christ people... ever hear of ebay? http://search.ebay.com/tattoo-gun_W0QQfromZR8QQhtZ1QQsbrsrtZlQQsosortorderZ2QQsosortpropertyZ3 put in 'tattoo gun' and sort by price you can buy a REAL gun, needles and a couple colors for $119.00 all over - yeah they may not be top of the line guns but jeezus anythings better than a BIC pen. I myself have seen alot of homemade gun work. I've seen some excellent stuff and I've had to fix alot. The fact is, most of the stuff done with hommade guns and homemade ink is that they fade...and despite what anyone says...they do. I'm a tattoo artist myself, and I use a mid-grade tattoo gun that I picked up for about $200. It works great and whats more is I don't have to worry about the BIC pen or the toothbrush melting. For a minimal investment you can easily make your money back in a few tats and you'll have a quality gun that will last for years. Just my 2 cents -junkbox

Answer by Jimmy Jo Jack
Submitted on 5/27/2004
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Hello I have read most of this thread an I have a pretty good way of making a tatoo gun. below is the supplies you will need to buy in order to proceed. 1. India Ink (You can get this from an arts & crafts store in your area. I got mine from Michael's) 2. one toothbrush and one cheap mechanical pencil(the kind of pencil should be the one you click from the top and not the side) 3. Needles ( get a variety of them because you have to have one small enough to fit down in the hole of the pencil.) 4. RC car motor 5. one eraser from no. 2 pencil 6. one adapter (I used 4.5 DC because a 6v dc will stop working half way through) 7. one guitar string (the high E or for those of you not musically inclined the thinnest one) Now to get started. 1. Take the eraser and draw a dot on the center as close to the center as possible. Now align the tip of the car motor and the dot on the eraser as close as possible and press firmly enough to put the tip half way through the eraser. 2. Now take the mechanical pencil and unscrew the tip and pull hard on the clicker at the top of it to pull out the insides. you should now have a tube and the pencile tip. find a needle in your assortment that will fit down through the hole in the tip of the pencil (the part you unscrewed) then join the parts back to gether for right now. 3. now take your guitar string and cut off about 4 to 5 inches (this will be too long and we will shorten it later) now bend the tip (about 1 cm) to an L shape. Now set it aside. 4. Take the toothbrush cut off the bristles and heat about an inch down from the head. Now bend it to an L shape 5. Now take your car motor and put it on the L shaped toothbrush. tape it there with electrical tape. Now take the mechanical pencil we rigged with the needle and tape or glue the toothebrush with the motor to the mechanical pencil. Make sure the motor set just above the hole on top of the pencil. 6. Now remember the guitar string. Take the string and feed it down through the mechanical pencil and put the L shaped part of the string into the eraser on the car motor. Now listen closely cause this makes all the difference when you put it into the eraser put it in off-centered DO NOT PUT IT IN THE CENTER OTHERWISE THE NEEDLE WONT MOVE. 7. Unscrew the tip of the mechanical pencil and take out the needle and either use epoxy or soldering iron and fuse the needle to the string making sure you use a fairly small peice of epoxy or solder. Now screw back on the tip and if the string is too long pull it out of the eraser and cut it and reshape it to get the desired length we want the needle to stick out the tip of the pencil about 1 cm. (Note: There are some people who perfer to not use the needl and just feed the guitar string out the tip this can be done to forgo some extra work but your tattoo is going to hurt a lot more cause its not as sharp. What ever you perfer just proceed to the next step after deciding.) 8. Now you may be saying why did we leavve the needle hanging so far out the tip well if you open your bottle of india ink and put a needle down in it and pull it out you will notice how it just runs off the tip of the needle plus at the rate of speed your motor is going to be going it will fling it off easier. So wrap a little thread around the tip however leave a small part of the tip exposed just enough exposed to go into the skin. This will give the ink something to cling to. 8. Now cut off the tip of your adapter and pull the 2 wires apart and strip them. Put positive to the positive and negative to negative on the car motor if your plug it in and it don't work pull the wires off and switch them around. Now tape it up good none of the pencile should be visible it. This will make the rig even more sturdy. 9. Plug it in and grin and bear it.

Answer by lex
Submitted on 6/2/2004
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to make a tattoo gun just take a led pencil gut it to where all you have is the shaft and the tip then take a wall adapter and a motor from anything like a toy car motor then take a cloths button attach it to the motor where it is flat but kinda spins like a wheel when the motor is on then take a paper clip make it into a holder for the motor and so it attaches to the shaft of the mechanichal pencil the take a high e string from a guitar thread it through the mechanical pencil then take a nail put it in to the button so it looks like a crank then put the guitar string on the nail and an eraser on top to keep the string from comming off and use electrical tape all on it and there you go you have a tat gun any questions get a hold of me at livingdeadkids@yahoo.com but remember to have the subject be about tat guns or i wont open the email

Answer by aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Submitted on 6/27/2004
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Answer by helper
Submitted on 6/27/2004
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: Make a Tattoo Gun I've personally used this so I know it works... Things you'll need: bic pen (this is your tube that houses the needle) 4 or 5" section of guitar string ,second one from the smallest. ( this is your needle) tooth brush ( this gets bent like a "7" and joins the pen to the motor) an eraser from a pencil (this joins the shaft of the motor to the needle/guitar string) small battery operated motor (from a "walkman" or a hand held fan) some tape (to join everything together) Putting the pieces together: Take the guitar string and bend a little bit of the end down or up. Take out the ink tube of the pen, and cut it to about a 3 or 4" length, now file down the brass tip of the pen to get the ball out, make the hole big enough to allow passage of the needle. Insert the needle into the pen. Now take the tooth brush and cut off the bristles making it about 4" long. Heat it up in the middle with a lighter and bend it in to a "7" and hold in place untill stiff. Join/tape the pen needle assembly to the tooth brush. Now take the eraser from the pencil and shove it onto the shaft of the motor, try to get it as dead center as possible. Join the pen/needle/tooth brush to the motor/eraser assembly, tape the brush to the motor. Take the bent part of the needle/guitar stirng and stick it into the eraser, IMPORTANT- the needle must be purposely OFF CENTER. Now all that is left to do is find a power source, I used the plug-in adapter frrom a cd player. i guess you could hook up some batteries to a switch and then to the contacts of the motor.

Answer by fatty j
Submitted on 6/30/2004
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hi you want to know how to make a tat gun items needed 1. spoon 2. a motor out of a Walkman or CD player otherwise a small motor 3. duck tap and black tap 4. phone line 5. a universal ac adapter from 1.5 to 12v 6. second to smallest guitar string 7. a pencil eraser or gear that will fit the motor 8. a bic pin and bic lighter instructions making the gun first take the spoon and a pair of pliers bind the spoon until the spoon part brakes of the handle strain the handle out than bind about a fingers width of the handle's big end to around a 90 degree angle than take take your bic pin pull the insides out of the pin cut the cap of the top of the pin drain the ink pull the brass piece out of the pin take the lighter apart all you need is the brass thing the fuel comes out make sure you get the rubber piece out of the brass piece put the brass piece in the part where the brass piece of the pin went the inside of the pin should stick out the top of the out side of the pin duck tap the pine to the long part of the spoon handle make sure you have the brass piece to the opposite end of the Bent piece if Bent part of the handle is covering the pin you got i backwards tape the motor to the top of the handle to where the shaft of the motor is over the pin take the phone line cut about two foot off the middle cut off about 1 1/2 inch of the outer case of the phone line cut off all but two wires make sure the same wires are left at both ends Bear some of the wires at both ends attache two wires to the motor take the universal ac adapter cut the end of the wires don't cut the plug off Bear them attach them to the other end of the phone line use black tape to cover Bear wires only rune tat gun on 7.5 or 9v below 7.5 wont penetrate skin above will burn the motor out put the shaft of the motor in the middle of the eraser or put the gear on if you use a gear put a piece of duck tape around the gear. how to make the needle take the guitar sting bind a little piece of the guitar string to a 90 degree angle from the end cut of about 4" to 5" inches past the bind stick the long piece of the string in the ink tub of the pin put he Bent part in the top part of the eraser or gear cut the hang over of the string at the brass piece that you took of the lighter than sharpen the guitar sting burn it till it is hard than soak in alcohol repeat to make more needles

Answer by devin
Submitted on 7/15/2004
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if anybody wants to know how to make a crest tattoo gun this is how i made it: take the brush part off, take the battery cover off, cut the thing in half along the seems when you open up the machine there will be a motor and in front of the motor will be a gear (keep the motor and gear where they are) attached to the gear is a plastic bar attached to that bar is a medal object used to make the brush go up and down, unscrew that piece from the plastic bar... melt a hole on the bottom to the right of the gear, turn the plastic bar to a 90 degree angle so u can see the bar through the bottom on the end of a bar there is a part that the medal piece was once attached to melt that part enough so u can stick an end of a paper clip through, straighten the paper clip and tape a needle to the bottom part of the paper clip put the tube of a bic pen into the hole that u melted make sure u cut the ball off the end of the pen will toe nail clippers maker sure u can see the needle through the end now find an ac adapter and strip the ends of it put the ends of the wire onto the part of the motor where the batterys go glue it in place and u have a perfect good working tattoo gun

Answer by Heather
Submitted on 11/17/2004
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Hey everyone. I'm 22 years old and I just made a tattoo gun. I had help from someone who had spent a lot of time in prison. He explained how to make it but didn't show me exactly how to make it, so I made it myself. When I showed him what it looked like after I was done, he said my first tattoo gun looked a hell of a lot better than his first one did. Anyways... To the person who said that you should only get a tattoo from a professional in a Tattoo Shop... Hey moron! Did you ever stop to think how those professionals got started in the first place? They started out making their own guns, possibly even their own ink. They did home made tats in their basement or something - My point is, they started out exactly how I'm starting out... by doing it at home first. Besides, when I do my tats, I'm doing tats on myself before I do any on anyone else. So I'm being my own "test dummy." Anyways... I have a question about using bic pen ink... I heard using pen ink can cause ink poisoning - Is that true? You can email me at heatherdbrogdon@yahoo.com If it's not true then I wish someone would have told me that years ago because I would have made my tattoo gun when I was 15 and started giving myself tattoos. If anyone has Yahoo! Messenger or MSN Messenger, feel free to add me to either messenger - Yahoo! Messenger: 372137 and MSN Messenger: heatherdbrogdon@yahoo.com

Answer by dank
Submitted on 2/15/2005
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hey i just wanted to say that for 3 years I've been doing single needle with out a gun tattoos. they don't hurt any more then a tattoo done by a professional gun. it dose take a lot longer. ranging from 1 hour for five 1 inch letters. all the way too my best piece of work wich was a dragon done on a friends shoulder wich took 2 weeks of 4 hour sessions every day to finish. my work usually turns out better than a professional gun. also the tattoo is wort more to the customer and me because usually i get to know the person very good by the time i am done and there seams to be a bond because of all the work that is done for the tattoo. thank you for reading this, DANK

Answer by DreamwaveTattooist
Submitted on 2/19/2005
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I agree with Jake on this one. I personally have built several guns homemade for both lining and shading (yes it is possible BUT dumb!) I have been professionally tattooing and piercing for 6 years now and my biggest regrets are when I see my old tats that were hand done and the ones people come in and show me that were hand done. Its not easy to become a pro but for skin sake don't just go ramming needles into peoples skin for fun or a few bucks. Last week I had my worst case of a "Grinder" ever, he wanted his tattoo darker so he figured he would dig deeper and went to the hospital for a needle tip (had been reused and weakened by heating over flame for 'his' sterilization) in his wrist...dumb...I mean we charge for a reason people, would you let your friend surgically remove your appendix just cuz he got or new how to build *a scalpel? be serious people....