First week with a Neotat.

[devinomatic]

I just jumped into the rotary fold and figured I'd share my two cents insofar.

I picked up one of the RCA jack standard stroke Neotats that Eikon has just begun to stock. I considered a whole lot of rotaries, but this one just seemed to have the simplest no-hassle design compared to many.

I'm still getting hang of sticking an outline with it. I tend to lean forward into my lines pretty hard, and especially at extreme angles and when whipping out the tips of lines, I have a bit of trouble with the machine snagging up in the skin. This was never once a problem with any of my coil machines.

Colouring is another story. Packing solid colour is a little slower than with my Micky Sharpz, but I feel the skin responds more favourably to the Neotat. Less bleeding, swelling, and pain. I've been setting my needle depth a wee bit more shallow with the neotat to compensate for the lack of coil "give". The only issue I'm getting used to is colouring in tricky little sections (e.g., black section around celtic knotwork) solidly and quickly with my needles hanging out a bit more, as I feel this machine doesn't drop it in as well. Big fields of black or colour however, no problem at all.

This machine SHINES when it comes to long blends, layering colour, and overall pace of working on a larger scale. I have so much control over my gradients that I've been doing pieces that would normally call for a cap or two of graywash, in JUST black with nice long whips and sweeps.

I really enjoy this machine. It's built super well, runs smoother than the smoothest old time iron, and feels like it won't give up any time soon.

Thanks for reading!
Devin Cardosi
Chicago, Ill

[gangstajay]

he devin I looked at your face book page..nice work real nice. that unicorn reworks was wild.. hey give the long stroke neo tat or rotary works machine a try, you may find it works better for your style of tattooing.

[Alie K]

What type of coil were you using when you had the snags with the neotat? They are taking me a bit to get used to, but I tried the short stroke neotat the other day for lining (I've used short stroke coil machines before, so it wasn't that bad of an adjustment). At 10 volts it made very quick work of the lining. I may try it for my next lettering piece. Those are usually coil or nothing, but I'm feeling brave.

[gangstajay]

you do some nice script alie so make sure you post it up

[The Limey]

Great post Devin and likely very useful to anyone contemplating a rotary for the first time!

I don't have a Neo-Tat in my arsenal to relate to yet although all the rotaries I use regularly are linear in action. However, Ray has a bright green long stroke on its way to me so hopefully soon I can see how that needle clip etc works In retrospect I should have got him to engrave a lime on it too LOL!

I've found that when it comes to lining with a Rotary without give, a longer stroke (4mm +) helps me. Now I'm sure one of the builders will be able to tell me with certainty that its because I line slowly (which I do) and that the longer stroke matches my hand speed better but, what I don't understand is why its not so critical when a machine has give as my Rapier II has a 3mm stroke length and lines just fine. I actually wonder if the word give has a placebo effect on me and I don't think of it as a rotary and chill out more, who knows?

[Alie K]

you do some nice script alie so make sure you post it up

If I do some with a rotary, I will!!