This tattoo glossary is meant for thoseinterested inslightly more technical explanations,although we'll highlight howevery advanced termmatters in your tattooing.
Instead of an alphabetical listing, wehave arrangedthe terms by topic.
Index
1. Blowout
2. Sterilized water
3. Stroke Cam
4. Give
5. E-Give
6. Traditional Needle
7. Needle Cartridge
8. Needle Cartridge with a Membrane
9. Needle Diameter / Gauge
10. Needle Configuration or Grouping
11. Common Needle Configurations and Abbreviations
11.1 Round Liner
11.2 Flat
11.3 Magnum / "Mag"
11.4 Soft Edge Magnum or Curved Magnum Needles
11.5 Stacked Magnums
11.6 Bugpin
12. Tattoo Needle Abbreviations
13. Needle Taper
When Tattoos Go Wrong
Blowout:After the tattoo heals,the ink spreads, leaving a halo effect.
This is usually a result of thetattoo artist implanting too deeply in the skincombined withbody'snatural protective process, which tries to get rid of the "invader," or ink.
Sterilized water: Water that has been processed in a way that it is free ofmicrobes, such as bacteria, fungi, spores.
Tap wateris not a good choice for diluting your pigments or cleaning. The use of non-sterile water has resulted in terrible infectionsin customers' skin.
San Diego county warnsthat legionella, pseudomonas and mycobacteria can result in "severe illness and when left untreated, they may be fatal."This justiteratesyour bloodborne pathogenscertification and the importance of sterilizationpractices.
Reverse osmosis, distilled, tap, bottledand spring water arenot the sameas sterilized water.
Tattoo Machine Parts andFeatures
Stroke Cam: In motors, a cam is a flat,rotating platewith a small bearing riding on top.The cam's purpose is to change the type of motion from rotational to linear.Toachieve this,the camuses intermediary machine pieces.When a tattoo machine is activated by electricity, the cam spins and with the aide of those intermediary pieces,pushes the needle back and forth.
Thesize and weightof the cam itself iswhat determines how muchcentrifugalforce the cam exerts on the other moving pieces. (If you're trying to remember whatcentrifugalforce is, justthink back toyour childhood, when you would lock arms with your BFF and spin, facing each other,holding on tight to each others'arms until you felt like you were both going to go flying. The bigger the kids, the bigger the force.)
HOW THIS IMPACTS TATTOOING
The bigger the cam>> the more force isexerted >> the more the needle will protrude>> the longer your needle stroke will be!
Note that the difference in cam sizes is nearlyimperceptible to the naked eye, but even that tiny difference will give you a very different "stroke length."
In FK Irons' Xion machinesour cams look slightly different, and we even haveone less gear than most rotary machines.FK Irons' patented straight lever system immensely reduces vibration and wear and tear in comparison to traditional rotary mechanics.
Another huge plus is that artists caneasily change the cam-and therefore the stroke length- on theirXion, something that was nearly unheard of before!
The Xion comes with a 3.2mm and 3.7mm cam, but you canalso purchase a 1.8mm and 2.5mm cam(these smaller cams are used mostly for permanent makeup on delicatefacial skin).
Our newest machine, the wirelessFluxhas evenfewer intermediary pieces between the cam and the needle,making it more powerful.
Give: How hard or soft the machine/needle hits, or another way to think of it is how responsiveit is uponimpact on the skin.
When the needle hits the skin, how much will it resist when it hitsa thicker or harder areain comparison to when itencounters softer, easier-to-penetrate skin?
Will itinsist and hit the skin hard(i.e. "low give") or will your needle and machine be more receptive to how much the skin will permit it (i.e. "high give")?
HOW THIS IMPACTS TATTOOING
Some machines offer"give" adjustment and others don't at all.
A machine at "zero give" will hit hard and almost exactly the same every time. Machines that are built with no givearecalled "direct drive."Many tattoo artists have multiple machinesto adjust to different techniques, types of skin, etc. andit's all up to preference, hand speed, style, etc.
However,FK Irons is always changing the game and wehave found a way tohack direct drive machines and get "give" out of them with E-Give!
E-Give: The FK Ironstrademarked name for the manipulation ofthe give-even on direct drive machines!- through electronic means.
The Darklab mobile app willoffer various advantages, but the mostrevolutionary reveal is E-Give, where you can easily adjust the torque and allow the skin to be the give.
Tattoo Needles
Traditional Needle: The one long needle that ends in a loop and usually includes theuse of a rubber band. Theseare the typical needlesused before pen-style machines and tattooing cartridges came out.
Needle Cartridge:Generally, a cartridge is a containerthat is meant to be inserted into some sort of machine, such as a printer or a gun.Withregard to tattoo machines, the "case," or "cartridge," is filled with needles.
Needle Cartridge with a Membrane: Generally, a membrane is a dividing barrier that is meant to prevent or regulate the passage of liquids, cells, etc. from one area to another. In the case of cartridge needles, some have a plastic membrane barrier and others don't.
Cartridges with membranes are thetattoo industry standard, however there are cheap, chintzy cartridges on the market without a membrane. Tattoo artists and the industry steer clear from these substandard versions because of the health dangers that cross-contamination pose.
HOW THIS IMPACTS TATTOOING
For tattoo machines whose grips are not separate from the cartridge - i.e.most "pen"tattoomachines- a membrane is absolutely critical to prevent back flow ofink and bodily fluids into the machine.
Any liquidsentering your motor will most assuredly ruin it.Imortantly, theback flow of blood or any other fluids can contaminateyour machine and endanger your clients.
Note: the use of non-membrane cartridge needles in FK Irons pen-style machines voids the warranty!
Needle Diameter/ Gauge: the width (diameter) of each, individual needle.In the tattoo world, someneedle manufacturers will refer to a number instead of the diameter per se. For instance:
#6 =.20mm diameter wide (this very narrow needle is usually for cosmetic tattooing)
#8= .25mm
#10 or 00 "double zero" = .30mm
#12 = .35mm
#13 = .40mm
Needle Configuration or Grouping: how close the needles are together and what shape they are placed in.
Usuallyit's not just one needle inside of a cartridge, but rather multiple. The more needles you have, the more you can pack in the color.
A tight needlegrouping in a circle with many needles will give youa very different result froma grouping with just three needles in a straight line, for instance.
Common Needle Configurations and Abbreviations
Round Liner:One, single needle or more, in a tight grouping intended for line work. The singleis most often used for tiny tattoos, microrealism and cosmetic tattooing on delicate facial skin and lips.
Flat:A grouping of needles placed side-by-side, whose tips are all level with each other. (See "standard" in the Needle Configurations diagram below).
Magnum / "Mag":More than one needle arranged side-by-side, but thisdiffers from the Flat in that "Mag" is just the name for the general category of needles that are arranged side-by-side.
If you want to differentiatethe Flat from the curved, then you would specifysoft edge/curved mags, then you would call themCurved or Soft Edge. Read below.
Soft EdgeMagnum or Curved Magnum Needles: A grouping of needles placed side by side,where the ones in the center protrude slightly morethan the needles on the edges, forming a "curved" or "soft" edge.
Stacked Magnums:Two rows of needles arranged side-by-side.
Bugpin: Magnums made withthe thinner needles (usually the .25mm) and tightly packed together.
Tattoo Needle Abbreviations
RL = Round Liner (in a circle)
RLT or RLXT= Round Liner Tight or Extra Tight (ina tightercircle)
RS = Round Shader (in a looser circle than the RL)
F= Flat(More than one needle arranged side-by-side, specifically forming a flat edge at thetips)
M = Mags(More than one needle arranged side-by-side. Can be curved or straight edged, but unless specified straight is usually the standard)
M1C = Curved Magnum (one layer of needles)
MC = Curved Magnum (can be one layer ofneedles or multiple)
M2 = Stacked Magnum (two layers of needles)
MS =Magnum Shader(two layers of tightly packed needles)
BP = Bugpin
Needle Taper: The distanceit takes for the needleto start getting narrower until it ends at it's point. The longer the distance, the thinner that needle taper is.
Tapers areusually classified simply as short, medium and long taper.
A long taper willlook very thin, as it gets narrow very slowly and the tip will look very sharp.
In comparison, ashort taper willlook kind of bull-nosed, and even if the tip is actuallypointy, it will look slightly duller simply because it is shorter.
The diagram above highlights the advantages ofeach needle taper.
This glossary of tattoo terms will get longer as we hearmore questions from you on our YouTube,Facebook orInstagram accounts.Follow themand askaway; we're up for the challenge of adding the tougherterminology here.
