![Rotary tattoo machine diagram](https://kumkoniak.com/55.jpg)
The ink is actually held between the needles. The fluid mechanics are in fact pretty spectacular. It’s rather like a Painter dipping his brush in the paint. The multiple points of the needles actually dip into pots of ink, as can be seen from slow-motion video photography. Tattoo Artists do not simply inject ink from some chamber. The machine actually has many-pointed needles, which are quite different from standard medical practice. It is often thought that tattoo needles work by injecting ink under the skin, but that is only partially true. Most of the earlier tattoo machines have evolved to look quite formidable, with complex design, and are difficult to operate. That may not sound surprising, but it is. But from the crude, hand-held, often tribal tools used by the ancients, to the modern pen tattoo machines is a far cry. Not only that, mummies discovered from widely separated locations such as Alaska, Sudan, Mongolia, Russia, Egypt, China and even in Greenland, have all exhibited various designs and modes of tattoos, mostly inked in. Close examination of the 61 tattoos on his body indicates that fireplace ash was used as ink, to pen the tattoos on his torso. Otzi was of course named after where his body was found, in the Otzal Alps of Europe. The finding dates from between 33 BC, and is clearly preserved on the mummified skin. The earliest known example has been on the mummified body of Otzi the Iceman. There is archaeological evidence that skin tattoos were practised since Neolithic times. Tattoos are also known as skin art or body art, with reason.
![Rotary tattoo machine diagram](https://kumkoniak.com/55.jpg)