I purchased a black Stylus H several months ago. For some background, I am a hardcore Hawk fan, and prefer the original Hawk and Spirit over the Thunder since I find it has a little too much power for my taste.

If you have purchased, or are considering purchasing the Stylus and it doesn't seem to be what you were hoping for, my advice is to stick with it and give it a chance, my initial experience was off from where I am now with it!

My initial thoughts when I first got the machine were that it was great at outlining right out of the gate, but I felt like I had to work harder to get solid color saturation. Large mags didn't seem to work as well as smaller groupings too. Black and grey went very well after a few tattoos getting used to it. I figured that I would just relegate it to just be for portraits and small lettering tattoos.

Then I saw several pieces that I had done with the Stylus healed and I was amazed at how good they looked! The saturation was great and the lines were crisp. I knew I had to work past whatever was giving me issues with the machine. I couldn't quite seem to find a voltage that worked well for me. I run my Hawks at 11v for lining and 9.5v for shading/solid/sculpting/etc. Turns out it was the volts I was running it at. When I had gotten the machine Rick suggested that I runs it upper 10s to almost 12. So I started bumping the volts and found my sweet spot for everything is 12v. That made a huge improvement as did hanging out a little more needle than I do with the Hawks. Maybe that helps the hand to compensate for the smaller motor?

Now I am using this machine on a daily basis. It does lining, solid, layered blends, and washes with ease. Any size mag isn't a problem now that I have raised the voltage. It is easier to keep clean than the Hawks since there aren't any inner tube workings to get crudded up. At first I was cutting down the Unimax grip bags and taping them to a clipcord bag to cover the machine, but now I am using the long closed end clipcord covers from Painful Pleasures. I slide the whole machine/cord into the bag and then fold down the excess bag ends and tape around it

the clipcord covers
http://www.painfulpleasures.com/xcar...cat=278&page=1

stylus.jpg


Some pieces I have done with the Stylus H

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