Lucky Supply recently had the chance to sit down with Greg DiGiacinto of Veritas MFG Tattoo Machines to hear the story behind his work, his process, and his commitment to coil machines done right.
My name is Greg DiGiacinto. I was born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I own Mr. Blue Sky Tattoo in Egg Harbor Township and live in Mays Landing, where my workshop is located. I’ve been tattooing since 1999 and tinkering with machines since day one, building machines for fellow tattooers since 2005. I started out kind of backwards — I didn’t have a workshop full of tools, but I did have a laptop. I taught myself a pretty crummy 2D CAD program so I could design parts, then outsourced my designs to local machine shops to have them cut or turned. That worked for a while, but the long-term goal was always to make every part myself, by hand. By 2014, I had enough tools to do just that. I began making jigs and fixtures to consistently replicate my parts and added a small mill/drill with a 15" rotary table to an old Atlas lathe I’d picked up years earlier. Those tools solidified my ability to make every part of a tattoo machine, except screws, washers, and a capacitor.
There have been plenty of ups and downs for coil machines over my career, but for the last 20-something years I’ve stayed focused on perfecting the process of fabricating my own parts. When the tattoo world shifted toward pens and rotaries, I kept my head down and stuck with coils. I’ve never made or used a rotary — coils are what I prefer. That said, you should use whatever tools YOU prefer to do YOUR job. I just happen to enjoy every subtle detail about coils. Every aspect of the design is carefully thought out and executed — it takes time and patience. My approach to building machines is modest and utilitarian. Design and geometry come first; nothing supersedes proper function. Style matters too, but it comes second. I lean toward simple shapes based on classic machine designs — geometry that works right, with a style that’s its own. I’ve always believed building tattoo machines is more than just throwing parts together. The machine has to work well, or you’re going to be bad at two things at once… machine building and tattooing.
Greg hand makes makes his machines in his Mays Landing, NJ Workshop.
Check out his machines for sale at Lucky Supply Here
