MACHINE-FREE TATTOOING: AN INTRODUCTION

Tattooing, by default, means tattooing with a machine in most people’s minds. But for a machine you need electricity, and tattooing has been around for thousands of years, while the electric motor was invented in 1821, the tattoo machine in 1891.

Before that, tattooing was practiced by hand-tapping (a stick with a sharp comb-like attachment was hit with another stick), or poking (a sharp stick, or a stick with a sharp attachment, be it thorn or needle, was used much like a pool cue or held like a pencil). One of the most sophisticated exemplars of tattoo art, the New Zealand Maori, practiced a combination of hand tap along with chiselling into the surface of the skin. Hand-tap was popular throughout the Pacific area. Samoan tatau retains a continuous tradition to this day, Filipino batok is enjoying a strong revival. Poking variations, tebori in Japan, and Sak Yant in Thailand, are particularly visible evocations of the art. In the West, when tattoo was popularized by returning sailors from the Pacific, tattooing was practiced by poking the designs, to be gradually replaced by the faster machine, patented by Sam Reilly in 1891.

There is currently a revival in western machine-free tattooing (or handpoke, handpush and stick and poke). Lines can be as black and solid as those made by machine, but the process is silent and less painful than that of a machine. Admittedly the work is slower than with a machine, but there is a meditative quality to it, and some clients can even fall asleep while being tattooed. The client and the tattooer can experience a closer bond without the barrier of noise. While many artists using traditional techniques also employ traditionally sourced patterns, which may or may not be used in a traditional cultural context, many artists are returning to traditional western figurative imagery. There is also a return to pre-prepared flash, though these days most of it is very personal to the tattoo artist and represents their artistic style, as opposed to old school tattooers, most of whom were untrained in art, and had to rely on flash that their more gifted associates produced and sold.

There’s a wealth of information on machine-free tattooing available on social media, especially Instagram and Tumblr. Several styles and techniques are examined and documented in my book Handpoke Tattoo: 23 Artists’ Words and Ink, along with explanations of sources and influences by the artists themselves. Other writers, such as Lane Wilcken (also a tattooer), document tattoo cultural revival, in Filipino Tattoos Ancient to Modern. Academics such as Lars Krutak examine hand tattooing in cultures where the art form is struggling for survival, while others, Aaron Deter-Wolf amongst them, examine tattooing in prehistory.

Previously hand tattooing was often regarded as amateur tattooing and scratcher work by many, including many machine tattooers unaware of the history of their art; machine-free tattooing often needs less explanation now. But it is important to acknowledge the roots of the art form, even if the work being done is super modern and contemporary. Geometry, for example, is timeless though fashions change. The machine-free technique promotes the use of dotwork/stippling for shading in naturalistic work, and in decoration in more graphic designs. Blackwork is the prevalent color choice, though any color can be used. A common feature in the work of many machine-free artists is the elimination of the solid line, to be replaced by dots in various densities. This, however, is not a hard and fast rule, as can be seen in the Handpoke book.

Machine-free tattooing offers an exciting, fascinating alternative to what is now the traditional tattoo technique everywhere really, that of the tattoo machine. This is the case whether your interest is in traditional geometry from the Marquesas, Asian endless patterns, or anchors, roses and skulls, and beyond. Because tattooing by hand is slower than with a machine, work tends to be on a smaller scale, but I find myself being drawn to the experience of being tattooed by hand more and more, and seek out machine-free artists working in different styles for the artistry of the technique, as well as the the experience of the process and the feeling that you’re connecting with an ancient art going back thousands of years.