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 ...

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.

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 ...