How does a rotary tattoo machine work?

Answer 1

Most of what is available, especially on the cheaper end, are all most commonly based on your average "prison gun" style.

But be forwarned that there are snags to rotaries as a lot of people see them. This is only a problem for the cheaper versions out there for the most part. First the main snag....rotaries in the cheaper end of the aforementioned style are usually inferior motors never intended for the skin, and as a result they lack the smooth packing power to deliver nice, and professional grade lines, so most people end up using them for nothing more than black and gray. With that said, these are very useful for B&G, as you can set them rather low voltage wise, thereby allowing you to build up your gradients smoothly without a lot of trauma to the skin. Also, depending on what kind of rotary machine you get, they are temperamental in packing color. But once again, this is the main snags for the cheaper end of the "prison gun" style.

On the good side of it all, these machines are superior in the fact that they on average weigh at least half of what a coil machine does, which takes a lot of stress off of your hand. Also, as stated above, they reduce the trauma that you do to the skin, so you can hit an area multiple times with a rotary, whereas you can usually only hit an area with a coil at most 3-4 times before you have to back off. Lastly, most rotaries are relatively quiet machines, in that they "hum" as opposed to "buzz" like a coil, which for an artist like myself with a tendency to get headaches, is a great change of pace to hearing the nagging buzz of a coil for hours on end all day.

With that last statement said, if you have headaches as an artist, the WORST machine to get would be a Neuma. They are sleek and light as a feather, and really run phenomenally but they sound quite literally like a dentist drill or a dremel. Whichever is the more annoying sound to you...imagine that one for HOURS whilst your doing a tattoo. One last thing about Neumas is that when I originally picked up an N2 a stretch ago, I found with my clients (most of whom have only ever been tattooed with coils their whole lives, and know the pain associated with getting tattooed by same) almost shat their pants and went bug eyed when they heard that beast scream to life. So, in summation on Neumas...they are great machines, but the sound they make and not to mention the fact that you need an air regulator, an air compressor, a special footpedal, oh and not to mention right around $1,500.00, gives them their good and bad points as well. But anyways, Neuma's aren't the point here.

Back to my main point, there are great alternatives to the most common rotary designs, mainly of which are designs which incorporate both the motor and/or a swashplate or an armature bar.

A Swashplate, or more astutely, an Australian Swashdrive, owes it's superior ability on the fact that the stroke is more focused, and most variants of a swash have adjustable settings, which allow you to control the stroke of your machine. The second is that the motors that they use on their products are very small, light, and powerful....these machines are like the Neuma, QUITE expensive as far as machines go be they coil or otherwise. Other very good, and significantly pricey variants is the German Cheyenne Hawk, Stigma Hypers, as well as most of the Swedish designs that you would find.

Well, I hope that this has been informative for you, and I will stop rambling on and on now. Thank you.