Eli5 why do tattoo machines not cut your skin?

Question

I see it all the time in videos. The tattoo artist pulls a line on the skin, but the needle part needs to be deep into the skin to deposit the ink, so how does it keep pulling the line without cutting the skin?

In: 12

Answer 1

Watch a video of tattooing slowed down — they aren’t pulling a blade or wire through the skin in a straight line, that’s a tiny needle that’s moving up and down very fast. It goes in and out of the skin but isn’t cutting a continuous cut. It’s more like the action of a sewing machine where the needle goes up and down as the fabric moves beneath it, so it just makes a series of punctures.