How To Make Prison Tattoo Gun?

How To Make Prison Tattoo Gun
How to Make a Prison Tattoo Gun | Complete Guide on Prison Tattoos

  • Materials for Making a Prison Tattoo Gun. Making the perfect tattoo machine is all about the essentials: ink, needles,
  • Assembling the Prison Tattoo Gun. And with that, you now have everything you need to assemble a workable prison tattoo
  • Some Prison Tattoo Ideas.

More.

How do you make prison ink tattoos?

Download Article Download Article Whether you’re tattooing in prison or just on a budget, you can create “prison-style” tattoo ink using baby oil, charcoal, and a bit of water. Be aware that this is neither a safe nor a certain substitute for actual tattoo ink. Do-it-yourself tattooing is illegal in most prisons, and it can open you up to the risk of serious blood infections. People do, however, use the following recipe to make a basic ink.

  1. 1 Find a can or metal container. It should be able to hold 4-6 ounces of baby oil, along with a bit of balled-up cotton. Try using a clean, empty boot polish can. If you don’t have access to a pre-made container: use a sharp implement to shear a 12-ounce aluminum can in half, and use the bottom half as your container.
    • You may be able to buy a boot polish can from the prison commissary. [1] If you can’t find boot polish, look for another suitable can that you can buy. It’s important that you don’t arouse suspicion from the guards, so don’t buy a can of something that you would never normally use.
  2. 2 Put cotton inside the can. If you have access to cotton, ball it up inside the can as a “wick” to help ignite the baby oil. Make sure to leave at least a bit of the cotton dry and oil-free so that it will be easier to light. Use cotton balls, if you can, or tear a small strip of cotton from a shirt or pillowcase.
    • Try cutting the sleeves off your shirt. This way, you can use the cotton without arousing suspicion or completely ruining the shirt.

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  3. 3 Douse the cotton with baby oil. You should be able to buy this oil from the prison commissary. Use enough baby oil to completely saturate the cotton, and make sure not to spill. You will burn this oil to create a black, sooty powder: the base ingredient of your tattoo ink.
    • In the absence of baby oil, you may be able to use Vaseline or another petroleum-based substance. Do not melt poly fiber plastics, as these chemicals will irritate your skin. [2]
  4. 4 Build a “soot collector”. Find a flat, clean piece of metal that will fit over the opening of the can without covering it completely. If you can’t find anything else, try cutting a sheet from the top half of the aluminum can, then pressing it until it is flat. This piece will collect the sooty powder so that you can mix it into ink.
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  1. 1 Make fire. Use a lighter or matches, if possible. If you are in prison, however, you may not have access to a traditional fire-starter. Find a way to make fire without a lighter. You will need fire both to make the ink and to disinfect the needle.
    • Try “popping a socket”. Open up an electrical socket, then hold a pencil tip and a wire up to the charged interior. This will create a spark. Hold a piece of paper or tissue against the spark until it catches flame. [3]
    • Be very careful when handling flame. On one hand, you might badly burn yourself or start a fire that you can’t control. You also run the risk of attracting the attention of the guards.
  2. 2 Burn the baby oil and cotton. Use the cotton (or paper) as a wick: light a dry corner of the flammable material, and let it ignite the oil. Arrange the metal sheet or “soot collector” so that the smoke hits it. As the baby oil burns, the metal sheet will blacken with soot. Let the baby oil burn until it is spent, and let the metal cool before handling it directly.
    • Be prepared to burn the baby oil several times. The burning process does not produce a lot of powder, so you may need to burn the oil several times until you have enough to harvest.
  3. 3 Save the black powder. Use a paper or plastic card to scrape the black powder from the metal sheet. Do not use a razor or another metal scraper to remove the soot – the metal might leave shards in the powder, which will then wind up in your skin. Start by scraping the powder onto a clean, smooth surface or a white piece of paper.
    • Do not expose the powder to any moisture until you’re ready to mix your ink.
    • The metal sheet and canister will be hot from the flame. Do not handle the metal directly until you’ve given it time to cool. Avoid using a credit card to scrape soot from hot metal, as the edge of the card might melt into the powder.
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  1. 1 Put the tattoo powder into a small cap or container. Many prison tattooists use a clean toothpaste cap. Fill the cap about halfway with the sooty powder, and leave enough room in the container to mix in water. If you collected the soot on a sheet of paper, you can fold the paper and let the soot slide directly into the cap.
  2. 2 Add water. Mix the soot with a drop of clean water. Be very sparing with the liquid-to-soot ratio; a bit of water goes a long way. Start with a small dose, and mix the soot together with the water in the toothpaste cap. Consider adding a bit of clear, scentless baby oil to thicken the mixture.
    • Remember: the soot is much harder to come by than water or baby oil. It is a limited resource. Be very careful with your mixing so that you don’t need to make more soot.
  3. 3 Finish mixing the ink. Stir the soot-and-water mixture until it is about the consistency of a pen’s ink. If anything, the ink should be slightly thicker. Adjust the portions of each ingredient until the texture is just right. To thin your ink, add a dash of water or baby oil. To thicken it up, add more soot.
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Add New Question

  • Question Can I use normal pen ink? No, you cannot use normal pen ink as it can poison you if it gets into your blood stream.
  • Question Is there a way to make a tattoo needle? To make a tattoo needle, start with a pencil. Put a needle on the side of the pencil and wrap a thin string around it. (A lot of string. ) Make sure that the string goes near the tip of the needle, but not too close. The string is used to hold extra ink so that you don’t have to keep going back to the ink cup.
  • Question Do I need baby oil and shampoo, or could I just use soot and water? You don’t necessarily need the shampoo, but the baby oil is required to turn the soot into ink.
  • Question Can normal pen ink work? You’ll run the risk of an infection, or having a very bad-looking piece of art.
  • Question What kind of ink can I use for at home tattooing? You can use waterproof Black India ink from a local craft store. It comes in a small glass bottle with a dropper built into the lid. Thicken it up with ashes to desired consistency and start scratching.
  • Question Does the “soot collector” have to be metal? Not necessarily, but it has to be able to withstand fire, so it can’t be anything like plastic.
  • Question What kind of shampoo can I use? You don’t absolutely need shampoo, but the clearest and simplest you can find would be best.
  • Question Other inmates have been burning their ramen for like 9 minutes. Could this be to get ash for ink? When I was in prison I did this by burning the ramen and mixing the ink with baby oil. It didn’t work that well, though, so I wouldn’t recommend this method.
  • Question Can I thicken India ink with baby oil? Yes, you can.
  • Question Will it be permanent? No, it is not professionally done so it will fade pretty quickly, especially if it’s on a place you wash frequently like your hands.

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What kind of ink do prison tattoos use?

Feature | Filed 06:00 a. 06. 07. 2019 D an Grote spent the last week of his seven-year prison term getting tattooed. Grote, 42, a prison teacher, had promised his students that if they passed their high school equivalency exams, he’d get a tattoo of their choice on his arms.

  • Almost all his students passed, and by the end of the week Grote’s arms were a melange of tattoo art that included prison towers and William Blake poems;
  • Some of the students inked Grote themselves, using tattoo machines fashioned out of CD players, pen casings and guitar strings;

Other students just drew the art. “It was our way of saying thank you to each other,” said Grote, who left the Canaan federal prison in Pennsylvania two months ago after serving his sentence for a robbery. From notorious tattoos, such as a filled-in teardrop that connotes a murderer, to the more heartfelt, including girlfriends’ names or wedding bands, prison tattoos are badges of inmates’ identities.

“Some people want to look the part, some people actually do get them to illustrate their life story and some probably get them just because it’s against the rules to get them done,” Grote said. “Not too different from in the world.

” But unlike those on the outside, prisoners must go to great—and often ingenious—lengths to get tattoos, using broken spoons and deodorant labels to create the foundation for tattoo machines and burnt ash for ink. Body artists and the people who manufacture tattoo machines are highly respected by other inmates, but they are viewed warily by guards and corrections officials who say tattoos carry health risks.

(Nobody in prison has access to a sterilized tattoo parlor. ) As a result, inmates who are caught freshly inked or making tattoo machines can be disciplined and put into solitary confinement, sometimes for days.

Eric Glisson, 43, spent 17 years in Sing Sing making tattoo machines for extra money. The state paid Glisson about $6. 50 every other week for various prison jobs. A tattoo machine, he said, sold for considerably more and could be made in a day. “I could crank out about three machines a week, maybe one every other day, and charge $30 each,” he said.

  1. And in a place where a loaf of bread is 30 cents and the price of peanut butter or jam is the same, the sales meant Glisson could eat well;
  2. In Reddit threads and YouTube videos , former inmates describe the painstaking task of making tattoo machines and colored ink;

Prisoners take apart beard trimmers or CD players to get at the tiny motor, which they can adapt to make the tattoo needle go up and down quickly enough. (Tattoo artists who use beard trimmers can quickly put the shaver back on and trick guards searching for contraband.

  1. ) The needle itself is often made from a metal guitar string split in two by holding it over an open flame until it snaps in half, creating a fine point;
  2. The springs inside gel pens can also flatten into needles;

One former prisoner who now runs a tattoo shop said he used to make black ink by trapping soot in a milk carton placed over a burning pile of plastic razors or Bible pages. He would mix the leftover ash and soot with a bit of alcohol (for hygienic purposes).

To get color, some inmates use liquid India ink that family members buy from arts and crafts stores. An example of the kind of rudimentary tattoo rig used by prisoners, assembled with tape, a pen, a lighter, scissors, a battery, a motor, a guitar string and paper clips.

A guitar string slides through the body of a pen to become a needle. Paper clips form a platform for the motor. A lighter heats up paper clips to fuse them to the plastic motor body. The guitar string connects to the motor, and excess wire can be snipped. Wires from the motor attach to each end of a battery.

Though banned in all prisons and jails, the tattoo gun is fully functional, if not sterile. All prisons prohibit getting or giving a tattoo with a do-it-yourself machine, which are considered contraband.

Corrections officials say shared needles can spread blood-borne diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C. It’s not an unfounded concern: In interviews, former inmates said it was common to see multiple people tattooed with the same needle. In 2005, a Centers for Disease Control report examined 88 males in Georgia’s prisons and found that half the men had contracted HIV from getting tattooed while incarcerated.

  • To try to fix the problem, the province of Ontario, Canada, allowed prisons to set up tattoo parlors;
  • (That program was cancelled, though, because of costs;
  • ) Essays by people in prison and others who have experience with the criminal justice system But some prisons are relaxed about tattoo machines, said Manny Vargas, a former prison recreation therapist in California;

Next to other contraband that prison guards have to look out for, such as drugs or handmade guns crafted from aerosol cans, cracking down on tattoo machines isn’t a high priority, he said. “It’s kind of like, pick your poison,” he said. Department of Corrections officials in New York wouldn’t discuss how people are disciplined if they are caught with tattoo machines, but said that “disciplinary sanctions” could happen. Khalid King tattooed his right arm with the name of his ex-girlfriend, Veronica, who said she would stick by his side while he was locked up. Aileen Son for The Marshall Project The tattoo on King’s left arm shows a hand holding a crystal ball saying “Shadow Bred,” because during his time in prison, he wanted to be in the shadows and not draw attention to himself. Aileen Son for The Marshall Project Still, inmates often believe that tattoos are worth the risk.

  1. “The prohibition on tattooing exists to preserve the health of incarcerated individuals and staff, as well as the security of the facility,” said Dee Johnson, assistant public information officer for the New York Department of Corrections, in a statement;

Khalid King, 38, who served 11 years for a robbery and got five tattoos while incarcerated, described how he would play a kind of duck-and-run game with prison guards to avoid being caught with fresh tattoos. He’d stop going for food in the cafeteria for days and would even avoid the showers for about a week, he said.

For King and others, a tattoo can be used as a gift-giving ritual to loved ones on the outside. While at Rikers Island jail in New York City, he wanted to show his appreciation and love to a girlfriend who said she would stick by his side while he was locked up.

“It’s not like I could get her, like, something from the commissary,” he said. A tattoo was the only gift King could think of. So, he got his first tattoo—Veronica, his girlfriend’s name—done with a dressmaker pin. The girlfriend is long gone, he said, but the significance of the tattoo stays with him.

Can you tattoo with Sharpie ink?

Sharpie Ink – Sharpies are great. They’re the go-to, top of the line choice for permanent markers. Since the markers are permanent, then they should make an excellent choice for stick and poke tattoos, right? Wrong. Any marker labeled as ACMI “non-toxic” by Sharpie has been tested and deemed to be safe for art, but this does not include body art or using the ink for tattoos.

  • Even though Sharpie does not recommend using their markers to draw on skin, many people do it anyway;
  • This doesn’t result in serious health issues, yet it’s another story when it goes beneath the outer layer of skin;

Harmful ingredients found in various sharpie markers include n-butanol, diacetone alcohol, and cresol, all of which have the potential to cause health effects such as eye, nose, and throat irritation. King size Sharpies, Magnum Sharpies, and Touch-Up Sharpies contain xylene.

Xylene is a chemical capable of damaging your respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, and renal systems. Many of these risks come from inhaling the vapors, though all bets are off once xylene enters your bloodstream directly, which is plausible if the needle goes too deep during an amateur hand-poked tattoo.

Even if you can avoid going too deep with a stick and poke tattoo, you still need to extract the ink from the Sharpie, and you could be exposed to harmful fumes while doing this.

Is Bic pen ink toxic?

Is a Bic Pen Toxic? – The package itself usually tells you it’s non-toxic. So you’re safe. A Bic pen is a regular ballpoint pen, so if you’ve read everything above, you already know you’re good! Personally, I like to use Bic pens the most, I really like their feeling and there’s a lot of colors to choose from. How To Make Prison Tattoo Gun Also, from experience , I never had problems with extra ink spilling from my pen. From all the Bic pens I’ve bought, it has probably happened once or twice. Another advantage is that they’re quite cheap and can come in big packages if you wish to get a lot of them at once and save them for whenever you need them!.

Are prison tattoos safe?

By Lorry Schoenly Is tattooing a part of the inmate culture in your prison or jail? If so, your population and staff may be at risk for more than just bad artwork. Homemade prison tattooing can have serious health risks due to bloodborne pathogen (BBP) transmission.

Risks come from infected contraband tattooing ‘guns’ and needles — as well as unclean ink sources — that contribute to blood transfer during the inking process. HIV transmission is usually the first (and worst) BBP that comes to mind when thinking about prison tattooing.

However, inmates are far more likely to contract Hepatitis C during tattooing, as more inmates have this condition. Although infection rates vary across prison systems, between 30 and 40 percent of the United States inmate population is thought to be carrying the Hepatitis C virus.

Only about two percent of the general population carries HIV. Hepatitis C is significantly more contagious than HIV and, if left untreated, it can result in significant liver damage and death. And unlike Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C currently has no available vaccine.

Reining in underground tattooing can reduce the spread of Hepatitis (in all its forms) and HIV among the inmate population at your facility. When you reduce makeshift tattooing in your prison population, chances for viral transmission to custody staff and the general public also decrease.

Here are several suggestions for reducing this practice: • Include education about the dangers of prison tattooing in the inmate orientation process of your facility • Have healthcare staff regularly provide additional education during sick call or health rounds, should fresh tattooing be suspected • Have a zero-tolerance policy on homemade tattooing — create structured ways to deal with offenses and consider how initiation of a tattoo-reduction program will impact the prison subculture, including gang activity • Carefully handle tattooing equipment and needles when found during a shakedown — consider all items, even if appearing clean, to be contaminated Some prisons systems have implemented pilot programs to reduce underground tattooing in their facility through regulated in-facility tattoo parlors, a controversial practice akin to in-prison condom distribution.

These programs ensure that proper hygiene is maintained and sterilized equipment is used in the tattooing process, but at what cost? Are the benefits of sanctioned tattooing (decreases in BBP transmission and the trade in contraband tattoo equipment) outweighed by the costs (perpetuation of tattoo and gang culture)? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.

What ink can I use for a stick and poke?

Posted on September 07 2020 Here’s a quick fire guide for those looking to become part of the stick and poke world! Enjoy. What is a Stick and Poke? A stick and poke is a DIY way to create tattoos. it’s a modern version of what people have been doing for years, having a go at creating their very own designs! What do you need for a Stick and   Poke? You will need a needle, thread, skin, ink, and all the precautions to make it safe and sterile.

  • (things like boiling the needle, wearing protective gloves, using alcohol on the skin etc;
  • ) What needle should I use? You can use a normal sewing needle but a tattoo needle works the best;
  • We recommend not using a hollow piercing needle or a safety pin;

Try to be sensible! What ink should I use? Tattoo ink is the best, but non toxic india ink (such as Higgins, Speedball or Winsor and Newton) works well also. These are all easily available on the internet. Stay away from pen ink and inks that may be toxic.

Other inks may work, but if you want to get the most from your design and it be safe, tattoo ink is definitely the way to go. How long will these tattoos last? Depending on how deep you poked and the type of skin it was applied on, they should for a really long.

Although this is contradicts popular opinion, you should not think of these as temporary tattoos. How deep should I poke? Our opinion is that you should never exceed 1/8 of an inch. You should feel a pop of the skin while you’re doing it, when you do, don’t go much past that point.

You’ll quickly see the results if you’ve gone deep enough so don’t rush it. Don’t overdo it! You don’t want to damage the skin or bleed too much during the process. What should I do for after care? Keep it clean with anti bacterial soap.

If possible, also try to stay out of direct sunlight too. Generally, the aftercare is very similar to a professional tattoo..