Samuel O’Reilly was born to Irish parents in 1854. Twice in jail, O'Reilly turned his fortune around and patented the first electric tattoo machine in 1891.

Samuel O'Reilly was born in Connecticut in 1854 to Irish immigrant parents. Very little is known of O'Reilly's early years, but the 1870 Census ...

A New York City tattoo artist, Samuel O’Reilly, was granted a patent for the first tattooing machine in 1891. By adapting Thomas Edison's design for an electric pen, O’Reilly created a tattoo machine ...

In 1876, Thomas Edison patented the electric pen. Two decades later, a New Yorker named Samuel O’Reilly modified Edison’s invention to create the first tattoo machine. Neither had the faintest ...

When it comes to tattoos, the New Haven area has a rich history that includes Samuel O’Reilly, who patented the first electric tattoo machine in 1891, and Henry Silver, the earliest known tattoo ...

New Yorker Samuel O’Reilly patents the first electric tattoo machine, a modification of Thomas Edison’s perforating pen. 1944 In one of the first instances of legal trouble for the tattoo ...