"Because you, like, obviously got it in someone’s bedroom."

December 20, 2019 12:20 PM

Stick-and-Poke Tattoo Culture Isn’t What You Think | /r/sticknpokes/ | StickandPokeTattooKit.com | The Things People Get Wrong About Stick and Poke Tattoos | The Rise of Stick and Poke Tattoos

Some [randomly selected] handpoke artists on Instagram: prisoner_poke | pontotattoo | katememphis | tealeigh | meester_prikkebeen | m_inspirada

posted by youarenothere (17 comments total)

I'm getting my first tattoo tonight and it's gonna be a stick-n-poke!!
posted by youarenothere at 12:20 PM on December 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

I have a dearly beloved "internet" friend who is a very talented stick-n-poke artist. I, personally, would ever get one but that's just a style preference. The Ponto Tattoo that you linked to is wonderful, though. So is Kate Memphis, gosh I'd give my left tit to visit memphis again.
posted by FirstMateKate at 12:26 PM on December 20, 2019

My immediate association is the jail tattoos that the guys I used to paint houses with had but these do look much nicer.
posted by octothorpe at 12:56 PM on December 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

See also: Irezumi.
posted by Splunge at 12:57 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who has punk rock stick and pokes that are beautiful. I mean, obviously there are lots of fancy stick and pokes that are really elaborate and professional, but even a very simple stick and poke done by a talented amateur can look really good - if the person really is a talented amateur. Placement and understanding the limits of the form make a great deal of difference.
posted by Frowner at 12:59 PM on December 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

I did my own stick-n-poke the other day, I am looking forward to doing my next one!
posted by Iteki at 1:15 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just hearing the name makes me think "prison", so I guess the title of the first linked article is correct.
posted by hwestiii at 1:19 PM on December 20, 2019

There's something about the website for the kit that screams "artisanal, bespoke tattoos". Which, yeah, kinda that's all of them, but, still.
posted by hanov3r at 1:36 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Finally! I can point to the misshapen greenish blue blob on my thigh from an early teen attempt to create a stick-and-poke tat with pride!

my information was limited and I did not know one should wrap the business end of the needle with some thread to create an ink reservoir, so I just dipped the needle into a jar of india ink after every puncture. It hurt and took a looooong, loooooooong time and I gave up.
posted by mwhybark at 2:11 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

A couple years later, I tried to replicate the bamboo-oscillation-spring style stick-and-poke “gun” I had read about someplace. By then I knew about the thread reservoir thing. I was, in fact, able to create the oscillating hammer effect, yay! I followed up my dry run with a wet run, that is, I dipped the needle and reservoir into the ink and gave kt a THWAK to get it going. Ink sprayed everywhere, into my eye, my clothes, everywhere. I stopped before things got worse. THE END.
posted by mwhybark at 2:16 PM on December 20, 2019 [7 favorites]

Like many several of us, I have one of these that I did as a teenager. I think I was 16 when I did it, with one or two sewing machine needles wrapped in thread. It's help up fairly well with time; I mostly forget it is there, honestly. Of the many dumb things I did at that age, this was far from the worst. (In that pre-internet time, I think I found how-to instructions in that RE/Search "Modern Primatives" book. To the authors' credit, they acknowledged the indigenous roots of the practice, but the name of the book suggests its enormous blind spots, too.)

Some of the imagery in the FPP links is really good, but there are a lot of really crude renditions, too. That's true for all tattoo styles, but the accessibility of stick and poke makes for a wide spectrum of results.

The additional links in stoneweaver's comment are great, thank you for adding those.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:22 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

I agree that this post needed some native and indigenous artists, but isn't stick and poke what everyone everywhere did for thousands of years until the tattoo gun was invented? Or am I missing a distinction?
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:03 PM on December 20, 2019 [11 favorites]

I can't, for some, reason, make clicky links. But this is interesting.

https://mymodernmet.com/japanese-tattoo-history/
posted by Splunge at 4:52 PM on December 20, 2019

oh, I got one in someones bedroom! it's a happy little rain cloud shaped like a H2O molecule, to remind me to drink more water. It was fun and a great way to connect with a friend, but afterwards my normal tattoo artist warned me off because of sanitation reasons.
posted by rebent at 5:19 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

but isn't stick and poke what everyone everywhere did for thousands of years until the tattoo gun was invented?

Yes. The word Britain most likely evolved from the name the Romans had for the inhabitants when they invaded in the first century: The Pretani, meaning painted ones. They used iron needles to liberally adorn themselves with figures according to contemporary-ish accounts. And Otzi the Iceman had tattoos, which would presumably have been done without the help of modern tattoo guns. The word tattoo itself is much more recent as well. People have been getting them since the dawn of history pretty much!
posted by fshgrl at 5:59 PM on December 20, 2019 [8 favorites]

Apologies; the post was not meant in any way to be representative of tattoo culture or "stick and poke" technique/history; I merely thought I might share some tabs I'd opened in excitement while prepping for my first tattoo and then shared a few artists at random--as noted in the post because I wanted it to be clear that they were not collected under any rubric or meant to represent anything about the artform--found quickly under the "handpoke" tag on Instagram before it blocked me from continued browsing due to not having a login. I did not investigate or make any assumptions about the race of the artists; I am not white. I do not have or use the Instagram app so I wasn't sure how to search via the browser beyond a direct tag (which was linked so that people could browse in a more directional manner most desirable to themselves) in order to find artists with more specificity and did not think the post would be read as "these links encompass the fullness of stick and poke culture". (In fact, I thought in the moment that it could be the first of many tattoo posts I could make because, yeah, there are an infinite number of incredible tattoo cultures from pretty much the beginning of [human] time and it seemed that separate posts would be more appropriate than deciding all non-machine tattoos were The Same.) While making the post, it did occur that I might try to integrate more history (recently had a personal conversation after ceremony with indigenous elders about their relationships to traditional tattoo forms), but, despite some knowledge of a number of ancient and traditional tattoo techniques from around the world--including from my own cultural backgrounds--I have only seen the term "stick and poke" used in a specific context and never in reference to indigenous tattoos, irrespective of the fact that they are often machine-less, and thus did not want to lump all machine-less tattoos under one, specifically Westernized label. My apologies for ultimately making a post which has reinscribed erasures. I am trying to make more posts and in trying not to bog myself in the decision fatigue that led to a decade+ old text file of drafted MF posts have erred. Thanks to those who have shared additional links.

And thanks also to those who shared their stick and poke tats and stories! My small dream from a couple of hours ago of seeing at least one MF-er's snp has officially come true.
posted by youarenothere at 3:47 AM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

stoneweaver: No problem; I recognize, deeply respect, and revere your reaction and perspective, truly. The world forces us to navigate hackles up! Totally understood. More importantly, outside of this post, I'll take the opportunity to note that I've gotten so much from your posts over time--thank you for bringing so much to this community (and beyond: I've shared many of your links outside of the Blue). You make this site better.
posted by youarenothere at 6:32 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]