Tattoo Pioneers: Samuel O’Reilly

Samuel O’Reilly was born in Connecticut in 1854. From the age of 19 he lived rambunctiously and lawlessly for over a decade, resulting in multiple prison sentences and a short stint in the Marine Corps.

Although the start of O’Reilly’s tattooing career remains a mystery, it is believed he studied under ‘Old Martin’ Hildebrandt before opening his own shop at #5 Chatham Square, and later moving to #11 Chatham Square in the Bowery section of New York.

The Bowery was an infamous area of squalid tenement buildings, underground gambling dens, saloons and brothels. It was in this notoriously bare knuckle environment that O’Reilly tattooed several circus attractions, including 12 tattooed ladies, and the world’s first electrically tattooed attractions: Tom Sidonia, George Karlavagn, and George Mellivan, who each went on to have exciting careers of their own.

Samuel O’Reilly is best known for inventing the modern tattoo machine. Patented December 8, 1891, it was based on Thomas Edison’s autographic printing pen. Of note is the fact that this very first electric tattoo device was in fact a rotary tattoo machine, which casts a little humour on those dedicated to the ‘Loyal to the Coil’ ideology, which disdains rotary machines as not being part of a traditional image. A functional replica of the technology can be seen in action below:

After an illustrious career during which he also apprenticed one of the great forefathers of modern electric tattooing, Charlie Wagner, O’Reilly died in April 19, 1909 after falling while painting his house.