How to Make an Electric Toothbrush Tattoo Gun

For fun, I decided to make an electric toothbrush tattoo gun at home. Obviously any homemade tattoo guns are too dangerous for use in tattooing a human, but once it was made I had a brilliant idea. I had just finished crafting a fresh mortar and pestle out of clay and was thinking of proper ways to decorate and empower it. It came to me then. I could use the electric toothbrush tattoo gun and paint mixed with essential oil on the freshly baked clay.

From time-to-time now, I may mention the use of a homemade tattoo gun in my witchcraft spells. I will try to make these parts optional, but you may want to try your hand at tattoo machine building. It’s really very simple and a lot of fun to use.

Tattoo machine building tools:
New mechanical pencil with unused eraser (should be a .7 lead)
Electric toothbrush
11 gauge guitar string
Nail
Duct Tape

Step 1: Using the eraser from a mechanical pencil, cut it in half going the short way. This will create two short circles, not two long half-circles.

Step 2: Push a nail through the center of the eraser. If you are looking down at the eraser so that you see the circle the hole will be right in the middle of the circle.

Step 3: Cut a 3 inch long piece of 11 gauge guitar string. This will serve as your needle when you are done making the electric toothbrush tattoo gun.

Step 4: Get a battery-powered electric toothbrush. This should be one of those cheap ones, such as an Oral-B Spinbrush Pro toothbrush. Remove the toothbrush head and discard somehow; it’s not needed for tattoo gun building, but you may find another use for it like a portable toothbrush.

Step 5: Bend a 90 degree angle at the very top of the 3 inches of guitar string.

Step 6: Put the guitar string through the hole in the middle of the eraser. The 90 degree angle will be flat against the eraser when it is all the way through.

Step 7: Put the eraser into the plastic shaft that the toothbrush head was sitting on top of. The guitar string should be pointing up from the electric toothbrush body. Push the eraser down firmly. You can use a q-tip or anything that will fit into the shaft to push on it. The eraser should completely fill the plastic shaft.

Step 8: Put a drop of olive oil on top of the eraser and turn on the electric toothbrush. The eraser should pulse up and down. Leave it on for a few seconds to allow the olive oil to spread and lubricate well. The easier it moves the better because this is the part that drives the tattooing of an electric toothbrush tattoo gun.

Step 9: Twist the tip off a mechanical pencil. By tip I mean the part that the lead usually comes out through. It should screw off.

Step 10: Place the mechanical pencil tip over the guitar string. The string should fit through the hole in the tip. Center the mechanical pencil tip is centered; if you don’t center it properly the entire tattoo machine building will need to be redone because it will bend or even break the guitar string when turned on.

Step 11: Use duct tape to hold the mechanical pencil tip in place. Get the duct tape all the way down the shaft of the toothbrush as well to get the strongest hold.

Step 12: Cut the guitar string at a slight angle so that it’s sharp. The string should be cut as close to the mechanical pencil tip as possible. When you turn the electric toothbrush on the guitar string should pop in and out of the tip fairly quickly.

To use, just dip the tip in ink, paint or other colored liquid, turn the electric toothbrush tattoo gun on and draw on something inanimate and slightly soft. The guitar string may dull rather quickly if being used on cooked clay or other hardened surfaces. Just untape the tip and pull up the eraser. Put in a fresh piece of guitar string and put it back together as directed above for a fresh tip.

Note: If you decide to use this electric toothbrush tattoo gun on yourself or another living person you do so at your own risk. Using a homemade tattoo gun on a person can result in serious infection. Because you probably won’t be using appropriate ink either you will be putting yourself at risk for poisoning. Plus, the tattoo just won’t look good when done with a homemade tattoo gun like this one.

As I experiment I may add more sturdy homemade tattoo machine gun directions to this blog so keep an eye out if you don't like this particular one.