The second-generation Irishman was born in Connecticut in 1854.

As a teenager on the East Coast of America, Samuel O’Reilly worked in a clock shop, specializing in brass objects. He is said to have been a wild, rebellious teenager with no time for rules. He even completed a two-year stint in jail after being caught raiding his local convenience store with two accomplices.

The time behind bars evidently gave O’Reilly time to think. It is believed he learned the art of tattooing while in the Navy and by the late 1880s, he had already made a name for himself in the industry.

According to his profile as part of the Irish Times' Extraordinary Emigrants series, O’Reilly operated out of his Chatham Square tattoo studio in New York - where he gained notoriety as both a showman and a cutting-edge artist.

Under the nickname Professor O’Reilly, he garnered the reputation of both “the world’s best tattooer” and “a perfect gentleman”.

Did you know an Irishman invented the tattoo gun? 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.#MuseumFromHome #EPICMuseum pic.twitter.com/iNofYjkNin

— EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum (@EPICMuseumCHQ) March 31, 2020

It was this Irishman who took one of Thomas Edison’s failed inventions - the electric pen - and considered how to apply it to the world of tattooing. Thus, the handheld tattoo machine was born in December 1891, thanks to the vision of O’Reilly.

With the machine, artists could puncture the skin up to fifty times a second, unlike stick and poke which could only perform two or three punctures a second.

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By the 1900s, tattoo studios were opening up in every major American city and O’Reilly’s influence was even spreading to Europe.

Unfortunately, the tattoo master died after falling while painting his house in 1909. He was just 55 years old.

* Originally published in 2018. Updated in 2024.