• @[email protected]
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    fedilink
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    62 months ago

    The opposite of that is kinda how I thought tattoo machines worked as a kid- as in with hollow needles and an ink cartridge, like fountain pens, and each poke into the skin would deposit ink that way. I even ‘figured out’ that the tiny vacuum from pulling the needle out would be what pulled the ink down into the skin.

    When I found out how tattoo machines actually worked, it seemed so messy (and loud!).

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
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        72 months ago

        IKR? But yeah, nah, tattoo machines are basically a motor that pumps the needle up and down, and you have to dip it in ink to transfer it into the skin.

      • @nepenthes
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        72 months ago

        I looked it up:

        Tattoo needles are more like the nib of a fountain pen than a syringe; the ink isn’t shot down through the needle, but suspended at the end of it when an artist dips the tool into a well. Then, when the tip of the needle pierces a hole in the recipient’s skin (both the epidermis and the dermis beneath it), capillary action—the same force that makes liquid creep up the sides of a straw—draws the ink down into the dermis.

        Source: https://www.popsci.com/how-tattoos-work/