This is the original offset tattoo grip. It improves the artist's stability, line of sight, range of motion, comfort, control and leverage. Give it a try!
Summer of 2016, my morning ritual consisting of coffee, social media, and too many cigarettes was underway. I was watching a video of a calligrapher busting out some script using a pen with an offset nib. I wonder if something like this would work for tattooing? I started sketching and working things out in my head, ended up with something else entirely. I needed confirmation from my fellow artists whether I’m crazy, or if this idea could work. When I got to the studio, my dude Jeremy Selzer had a surprise of his own. A praying mantis was chilling out back, he had found it and put it on our plant which sits in our smoking area. It was tiny, just a baby mantis. After we got over the excitement of our new shop mascot, we talked about my invention and the ideas started to snowball. Like any innovative idea, it sounded crazy at first. But, after dozens of sketches and long nights, it was definitely taking shape. The mantis, who had now been dubbed the name “Manny Fresh”, was still living in our plant. We would find bugs and watch him eat. It was good entertainment for us and our clients. Sometimes he would turn his head and look right at me…like he was staring into my soul. Super cool. Anyway, it’d been about a month since Manny showed up and my idea had grown into a folder of sketches and notes. I was ready to make one and put it to the test. A client of mine is a machinist, we negotiated a trade of trades, and the first prototype was born. I rushed to the studio and had Mike Stow do some lettering on my thigh with it, it worked!! I used the grip the next day. I loved it out the gate. From the first line I pulled I knew it had awesome potential. There was really no learning curve. It feels better in your hand, and just makes sense. Then I threw in a shader cartridge and it worked too. That’s when i realized its real potential, it works with both? Before, i was thinking maybe it’d be good for lining, hadn’t really considered it being great for everything. I had to step away from the tattoo and gather myself! Over the next few months I lost a lot of sleep. I went through a bunch of prototypes and filed for a patent. I was relieved the day I handed everything over to the patent attorney. The weight and stress had been lifted. The drive back to the studio was somewhat surreal, like I was high or something. the sky looked cool, the sun was shining, and I was flooded with relief. I pulled up to the studio and went to say good morning to manny, like I had been doing every day for the last several months. He was gone! I kept looking, every day. every time i went out to smoke. It took a while to stop looking for him actually, it was just out of habit when we were out there smoking. now the plant was just a solemn reminder. We lost our mascot. People knew him, we posted a lot of pictures and videos of him, people would ask about him. He had a better following than I did! From time to time I would sit by the potted plant and wonder…why’d he leave? Did I not feed him enough? He was living the good life! Looking back at the summer of 2016, I came to the conclusion that he was a token of good fortune, which is exactly what they are in some cultures. He left because his job was done. An idea was born with his arrival, matured with him, and became a reality with his disappearance. I decided to name my invention The Mantis Grip, in honor of our friend, the wise one, Manny the mantis.” -Shea Rutherford Dedicated to Manny, wherever you are…killin’ it! The crew at State of the Art Tattoo Gallery…killin it!
Alright, so I'm going to explain to you the Maniskrip. It's the industry's first ever offset tattoo grip. It's made out of stainless steel, auto-clavable, and made right here in the USA. So first let's look at a machine that's commonly used, a pen style rotary machine. You lay it like this, So let's equip it with the grip. Slide it in there, tighten these down. And there. Now your machine is swung out of the way. Basically you can see your point of contact a lot easier. You've got more leverage, more range of motion, stability, control, all that good stuff. But the coolest part about it is that you can move the machine forward or backwards in the grip. Right now it's at a spot where it's going to be similar to what you're used to, the point of contact. If you drew a line down the handle, it's hitting that same line, that same spot. If you were to move the machine forward and change the point of contact, whoa, not that far. Come about right there. Now your point of contact is hanging way out there. So when you're tattooing it's going to hit a lot sooner than you're used to. This gives you more leverage, basically packing a more punch. I wouldn't hang way out until you get used to. I usually set my devs when I'm hanging out there You're going to hit real quick. Same goes for if you scoot the machine back past the normal point of contact. If you go back here, you're going to hit a little softer. Probably used more for mag soft shading. You don't have to always pack a punch, you can still feather stuff in. Here's another common setup. I used this one for a while. I'm going to turn it to the side so the weight is distributed properly. Set up with a mag right now. Let'say I was working on a back. I pulled this up to the back and I have to change this a little bit. Turn it in the grip so that it lays flush with the skin. So it's kind of calibrating it before you actually tattoo. Makes it more comfortable. Here's a machine that's all wrapped up and ready to roll. I always bag the machine part, the handle, and wrap the handle for the grip and comfort. The tape goes around my finger, kind of secures and it balances right on there. Burr. No, it's a manus. Not a burr. And dude, it's totally changed my game. Saturation is full, I can get soft when I need to be. Style and my technique has totally changed for the better. I'm having a lot of fun while I'm doing it. It's going better than ever. So I hope you'll give it a shot and tell us what you think. Follow us. There's more videos to come. Share it with your favorite artist. Thank you. Peace.
