Samuel F. O’Reilly

Life & Work

The Art of Samuel F. O’Reilly

Samuel O’Reilly is one of the most consequential figures in the history of American tattooing, not only as an artist but as an inventor. Working from his parlor at 11 Chatham Square on the Bowery, he adapted Thomas Edison’s autographic printing pen to create the first electric tattoo machine in 1891.

The device brought unprecedented speed and precision to work that had previously been done by hand, one dot at a time. Modern tattoo machines remain fundamentally based on his design. The invention changed not just the speed of the work but the economic model of an entire trade.

O’Reilly tattooed society clients who wanted their work kept private, European nobility passing through New York, and the working men who lined the Bowery looking for something to carry home from the sea. He died in 1908 after a fall while painting his house. His protege Charles Wagner continued the business, and Wagner later trained Paul Rogers.

The electric machine changed everything. O’Reilly made it from an Edison pen.