13
Aug
Aug
BLOG
The Evolution of Tattoo Equipment: Magnum Tattoo Needle Configurations
Magnum needle configurations presumably originate from Asia and Japan where artists and needle makers would fix needles on a wooden stick. The magnum tattoo needle is a versatile and unique tool, designed for pigment packing and shading. Their configurations generally cover a larger skin area and they are not suitable for making lines. In this article, I’ll discuss how you can leverage their benefits and make a difference with them in your artwork. Read on!
These magnum needle configurations probably originated in Asia and Japan. Artists and needles makers in these locations would fix needles on a wooden stick. This is a unique needle configuration. Lay down an uneven number of tattoo needles flat and lift each other, creating a zic-zac2-rows shape of needles that you solder together in this position. In this way, the bottom row of the needles is always one longer than the top row.
Uniqueness
Magnum needle configurations provide unique possibilities to create unique textures.
A distinctive feature of regular or square magnums is that you can use the configurations’ corners to get into smaller places or corners and create hard edges. You can keep the needles from various angles without reaching back to a round shader or liner configuration.
How Are They Made?
Magnum needles are commonly made from medium or long tapered needles (when it is manufactured from long tapered needles, it is called BUGPIN magnum). They are easy to recognize due to their 2 rows shape.
These needles have enough room around themselves to support higher ink flow and the capability of creating large, solid tattooed surfaces at a faster speed. Also, if you are a black and gray artist, you can create beautiful shades with these needles.
In our previous blog post, I explained that needles are available in three commonly used tattoo needle gauges, depending on the geographical region’s needs.
-
- .25mm – FINE – #8 is the standard system (US) designation.
- .30mm – NORMAL – #10 is the standard system (US) designation.
- .35mm – FAT – #12 is the standard system (US) designation.
Note: The configurations of REBEL Magnum needles are medium tapered.
Note: Don’t mix up the term “gauge” with the term “taper”!
You can visualize it easily: Lay down an uneven number of tattoo needles flat and lift each other, creating a zigzag 2-rows shape of needles that you solder together in this position. In this way, the bottom row of the needles is always one longer than the top row.
Magnum Tattoo Needle Configurations
Magnum needle configurations start from 5 needles and go up over 35-45. Artists call them “shovel” because of their wide width. The steps are going by 2 here too: 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and so on.
The Magnum needles from #8 – .25mm – FINE wire gauge – are called BUGPIN MAGNUM.
The general ID or mark for this group is M or MG = Magnum. It is MAG for short. “Regular Mags” stands for Regular Magnums. The number of needles and magnum tattoo needle configurations gives us 11-M or 11MG, depending on the manufacturer.
REBEL follows this system, plus inserts a brand recognition abbreviation: RTC = REBEL TATTOO CARTRIDGE.
REBEL Tattoo Cartridge – 27 Magnum = RTC-27M
Note: ALL REBEL Magnum needle configurations are medium tapered
Just like in the cases of other needle configurations, theoretically, we can create numerous needle configurations from 3 different gauges multiplied with the number of needles. But, there is a lot of overlap when it comes to WORKING WIDTH.
Working Width
The term working width is my own invention. I came up with this expression to lay ground for a better understanding and measure for the tattooed skin surface.
Working width is the total width of soldered needles that we use for tattooing. It means the width of the surface that the configuration can cover.
The REBEL team develops cartridge inventory to offer the widest range of these needle features and not by the taper type. The REBEL Magnum inventory looks like this:
REBEL Magnum tattoo needle configurations are made from .30mm needles.
The following chart explains the correlation between working width related to the working width, and wire gauge they belong to. It also describes metric and standard system measurements.
As you can see, we have the same number of needle configurations from all 3 sizes of needles, but there is a difference between them: they belong to different diameters or gauges. Naturally, smaller gauge needles need a higher quantity to reach a certain size compared to bigger gauge ones. Thus, we have a certain overlap between them.
Based on the Chart Below…
You can come to the conclusion that the working width of the 15 Magnum needle configuration from #8 (.25mm) is close to 13 Magnum Configuration that belongs to #10 (.30mm), or 11 Magnum configuration from #12 (.35mm).
Check out the chart below organized by working width and configuration!
All in all, there are 4 working width size ranges that may belong to all 3 gauges of needles: 3.25-3.40mm, 3.80-4.00mm, .4.55-4.80mm and 5.20-5.35mm for Magnum tattoo needle configurations.
Additionally, 2.20-2.30mm working width may come from .25mm and .30mm needles and all other blue marked working widths.
The rest of the working diameters only come from a certain gauge.
Paying careful attention, REBEL Magnum inventory covers a wide range of working widths to satisfy the needs of any picky tattoo artist.
To support you with the most reliable and up to date insights, I’ll write more blog posts for you on various industry secrets. Stay tuned!
Caesar The Hun
Hi Caesar!
Thank you for your informational blog on needles. I’m an RN who also does permanent make-up. I’m curious what your thoughts are re: needle size/configuration. I use a single needle to outline the lips but struggle on what to use for filling/shading the lips. Mostly I use a single needle but it takes about 5 hours which seems very long for such a small area. I’d appreciate your help and would love to buy some cartridges from you!
Hello there, thank you for your comments. Honestly, I’m not a makeup artist and don’t even know one, thus I can’t really give you a responsible answer. I personally don’t use single needle liners in my tattoo work. If I need a fine line one of the REBEL Bugpin liners like 3 or 5 would be an ideal replacement. For the filling part, I probably would go for around shader or magnum/curved magnum configuration. But again, I have not made up tattoo experience.