Mystic Art Productions

Machine setup recommendations:

Irezumi Max colours are made from pigments with an average particle size of 8-11 microns. They will give excellent results with any machine set and used to a professional level, although they are deliberately designed to be used with a strong running machine, idealy a Pulse-Matic, running quite slow (low trauma technique), 100 cycles per second plus or minus 20 cycles per second, (a fixed speed plug pack will run the Pulse-Matic machine at 100 cycles per second) and when used like this will give outstanding results! This allows the artist to saturate or blend colours generally in a single pass causing the absolute minimal amount of trauma to the clients skin. Running at higher speeds then recommended below can result in extra unnecessary pain for the client, extra trauma to the clients skin causing slower heal out times, heavier scabbing resulting in colour loss. The secret to bright, vibrant, even colour is to get them in ( properly not siting on top of the skin! ) with minimal trauma!
This in no way means your hand speed need be slow, as an artist I work faster then many other artists that I know, but for full colour saturation and blending I run my machine at around 6000 strokes per minute (100 cycles per second). If using D.C. machines this is 100Hz. However to get DC machines to run at the lower end speeds without losing hitting power you will need to use softer front springs and modify other settings, very few D.C. machines are capable of running at slower speeds and retaining any penetrative power.
For Pulse-Matic users running the frequency generator the setting would read 50Hz, as the Pulse-Matic cycles twice per Hz this is equal to 100 cycles per second.
A very simple way, ( if you don't have a Hz meter ) to gauge machine speed is to run your machines needles over a sheet of paper for 1 second and count the holes made in the paper and divide by the amount of needles in the cluster ( it's easier to use a one needle liner ) this will equal Hz, if your timing is right it is very accurate!
The biggest cause of washed out and weak colour, provided the machine has good penetrating power, ( excludes most D. C. machines available from China ) is that the artist is running his/her machine way to fast and or only penetrating to a fraction of the depth needed. Micron sized pigments need time to flow under the needle prior to the needles going back in after each stroke, once machine speeds increase above the optimum speeds for this to happen you will get needles penetrating the clients skin which have little or no pigment under them, thus creating extra puncture holes in the clients skin for little or no gain, also at high speeds the needles tend to "spear" through the pigments instead of pushing them in.
These colours are also designed to be used with industry standard #10-12 sharps needles, these are .30 to .35mm in diameter. We note a lot of needles being sold from various suppliers are now being labeled as number 12's when they are in fact a lot thinner ( thinner needles are cheaper to make ). We even had an artist bring in his 7 needle tight liner to get the best tip to suit, they were loose in our 3 needle tip and were in fact a lot smaller then our standard 3 liner cluster made from #10's! Colour gets very hard to put in properly once your needles get below .3mm dia. and above .35mm dia.
666 Black is made from "Nano" sized particles which are very small, which allows them to flow under the needles at higher rates and speed then micron sized pigments, so can be worked at higher speeds although I personally line and shade using these blacks at around 100-110Hz.