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Greetings, internet! It's Livia Michael again. Here at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles, I am learning the intricate mechanics of tattoo machines. There are a variety of tattoo machines on the market. However, there are two main types of machines that tattooists frequently use: coil and rotary. Coil machines are what most individuals imagine when they hear the word, ‘tattoo’ (e.g. the heavy metal machinery and the loud buzzing sound). This design was originally patented by Cha

Greetings, internet! It's Speakeasy Tattoo apprentice, Livia Michael again. 'Flash' is a word that gets used a lot in the context of tattooing. But, what is it? When one walks into a tattoo parlor or visits an artist’s social media page, there are most likely going to be sheets or collections with a multitude of designs. These are known as ‘flash’ or ‘flash sheets.’ Flash sheets are pre-drawn tattoo designs available to be tattooed onto a client immediately . The usage of the

Greetings, internet! It’s Livia Michael again. Here at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles, I am learning so much about the history of tattoos and iconic tattoo artists. There are many names that come up frequently when you research tattoo history - Samuel O’Reilly, Charles ‘Charlie’ Wagner, Norman ‘Sailor Jerry’ Collins, and Ed Hardy, to name a few. But I have seldom found one particular tattoo artist’s name in this rotation: ‘Lew the Jew’ Alberts. In a previous blog, I mention