For over a hundred years, building your own tattoo machine wasn't a hobby, it was the job. Charlie Wagner was doing his own machining out of 11 Chatham Square before he ever patented his twin coil design in 1904. Owen Jensen was running a machine shop on the side before he built the Special and turned it into the biggest tattoo supply business on the West Coast. Bill Jones was a machinist first, and the Jonesy became one of the most copied machines in tattoo history because he understood the mechanics as well as he understood the trade.

That tradition is exactly what we're bringing back with our full coil tattoo machine build kits, coming soon.

What's in the Kit

This isn't a parts grab bag. Every kit will include everything you need to build a complete, working coil tattoo machine from the frame up:

• Precision machined frame
• Coils, wound and tested
• Armature bar (your choice of size)
• Springs, front and rear
• Binding posts
• All the hardware in between

Every piece is made in-house at Feldman Tool Co. to the same tolerances that go into our finished machines. No shortcuts, no filler parts. If it's in the kit, it's built to actually run.

Built for Beginners and Builders Alike

If you're picking up a wrench for the first time and want to understand your machine instead of just running it, this kit gives you a real, guided way in. You'll learn what every part actually does because you're the one putting it together.

If you've been building machines for years and just want quality components without settling for mystery-grade parts, this kit skips the compromise. Every armature bar, coil, and binding post is the same part we use in our own machines, no watered-down "kit version."

Know Your Machine, Not Just Your Buzz

This is what a real build looks like. Not a finished machine sitting pretty in a case, but every part laid out on the bench, down to the last washer, where you can see exactly how it all comes together.

You can't fix what you don't understand. An artist who's only ever run a finished machine has no idea why it stopped hitting right. An artist who's built one knows in about ten seconds. That's the whole point of putting a kit like this in your hands. When something goes wrong mid-career, and it will, you won't be stuck waiting on someone else to tell you what's wrong with your own machine.

This is nothing new. Sailor Jerry Collins was constantly messing with his own machines, tuning and rebuilding them until they hit exactly how he wanted. Paul Rogers spent decades doing the same thing out of a little 6x10 tin shed he called the Iron Factory, building the machines he called "Irons" by hand for some of the biggest names in tattooing. The list goes on and on. The best in this industry were never just artists, they were builders too.

Why We're Doing This

Tattooing has always been a trade you build with your hands, not just perform with them. The best machine builders in history, Wagner, Jensen, Jones, all understood their equipment down to the last spring and screw. We want more artists to have that same relationship with their tools, whether that's out of necessity, curiosity, or just wanting to know your machine inside and out.

When Can You Get One?

We're still finalizing the release, no firm date yet, but the kits are in development now. Keep an eye on Feldman Tool Co. for updates, or reach out if you want to be the first to know when they drop.

Tattooing has always rewarded the ones who understood their machines. Now you can build your own.