Hand Poke tattooing is a method of creating tattoos using a manual technique rather than an electric tattoo machine. Instead of using a machine that rapidly moves needles in and out of the skin, a hand poke tattoo is created by manually inserting ink into the skin using a single needle or a group of needles attached to a stick or handle.
Hand Poke tattoos have a long history and are considered one of the oldest tattooing methods. They are associated with various cultures and indigenous groups around the world. In recent years, hand poke tattoos have gained popularity as an alternative to machine-based tattoos, often being chosen for their perceived simplicity, organic look, and potentially less discomfort during the tattooing process.
The history of hand poked tattoos
The hand-poking technique pursued today has a long and ancient history that goes back centuries and is found in many major cultures.
There are many ancient ways of tattooing. One of them is the cutting of a design in the skin and rubbing the wound with ink, ashes or other coloring agent afterwards creating the tattoo, which maybe is an adaptation to scarification. Stitching a tattoo into the skin is also an ancient technique where a tread drenched in ink is sewn into and pulled through the skin with a needle and so leaves a pattern. There is also hand-tapping, where the ink was tapped into the skin by using a sharpened animal bone or thorn that was attached to the end of a stick that was then tapped with another stick to insert the ink into the skin. You also have the traditional Japanese method that can be described as a form of hand-poke but it is very different, here the ink is inserted beneath the skin using a long hand made and handheld tool with needles or sharpened bamboo. This method is called tebori.
Often people think hand poke tattoos are like hand tapping tattoos or like the traditional Japanese tattoos but they are not. With a hand poke tattoo the artist has one needle (attached to a short stick/tool) that is used to poke the ink in the skin by hand. With hand tapping the artist has needles attached to a stick and instruments that he/she taps the ink into the skin
Nearly all of the traditional ways of tattooing had nearly disappeared following western colonizing contact but thankfully have been revived over the last period of time.
More about hand-poke tattoos
Achieving different shading effects is done by making different dot sizes and by more or less spacing between the dots. You can also make continuous unbroken lines as with a machine this is done by joining the dots together and smaller areas of solid coloring are also possible.
In essence you can almost make any design with the hand-poke technique but some things are just not practical like big areas of solid black or color or things like smooth shading and color blending like with a machine. The customer for sure needs to be explained on what design is suitable to be done with hand-poke technique or is better done by machine.
How does it feel?
Nearly all people think and expect that hand poked tattoos hurt a lot more than by machine, but they don’t and the healing process is also a lot quicker. It’s because when being hand poked you can see the needle going into the skin and when being tattooed by machine you can’t see the needle going into your skin but the principle is the same only the machine does it many more times a second and it feels like a line is being cut into the skin while with hand poke the line in being build up dot by dot.
When asked to describe the feeling when being hand poked some people say you can compare it to having your eyebrows plucked. I know the experience is different for every person but I can assure you the feeling is more friendly then when being tattooed by machine.
Healing and aftercare
As I already said, the easy healing process is a big advantage of a hand poke tattoo. Because the hand poke technique causes so little trauma to the skin with no swelling or bruising the skin hardly ever reacts in a way that sometimes occurs with machine tattooing. Of course everybody is different and this means that everybody’s skin can react in a different manner. For aftercare keep it moist like with any other way of tattooing.
I hope this gives you some information about hand poked tattoos and if you want to experience the feeling please send me a message. Enjoy some pictures of my hand poke work.