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Tattoo Machines by "Peg Leg McGee" is Jay Brown's Tattoo Machine Building Business. "Peg Leg" was a nickname given to Jay by Lyle Tuttle after he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001. Jay is a Tattoo Artist of 25 years and started out building machines early in his career just doing modifications and re-assembly, then 11 years ago in the basement of his friend Izzy LaPlante's Tattoo Studio building machines from scratch. Jay's first designs weren't quite what he wanted so he went back to the drawing board building only One Off's and Jonsey Replica's, and then just doing 13 or so a year to sell at the yearly Ink Travelers and Tattoo's and Blues conventions. All along Jay would look at every machine he could as he comprised his design concepts. In 2008 there was a break, and Jay met a caster, and began doing several brass cast models of the Old School greats. He studied the degins of Jensen, Rogers, Matthews, Connely, Waters, Zies and many other old time builders, building cast brass versions of their tattoo machines. Jay continued to work on his own geometry and designs till late 2009 when he came up with the first "Peg Leg McGee" tattoo machine, mimicing the shape of a peg leg, finding it funny due to his amputation. In early 2010, Jay was finally ready to start producing his designs in steel, and the first "Peg Leg McGee" machine was born. When Jay was content with the performance of the machines, he started making them available to the industry, to professionals only building 72 machine that year. All "Peg Leg" Tattoo Machines are completely handmade by Jay in his workshop in the back room of his tattoo studio in Moscow, Idaho.


Tattoo Machines by "Peg Leg McGee" offers six machine designs, all of which have been inspired by some of the alltime great tattoo machine builders of the past. There are several Tribute machines, two Owen Jensen tributes, the "Reliable" and the "Special" tribute. There is the JWS, which stands for Johnny Walker Short, and of course Jay still does his tribute to the Jonesy. Other machine designs are the Old Scooler, the New Model and the Original "Peg Leg" Design. All of these machines are completely hand made, with hand fabricated frames and hand wrapped coils, handmade binding post, handmade armature bar, handcut springs, we even use fasteners made in the USA when we can get them. All machines get the time and attention needed to make a daily running workhorse, no assebly lines here. Jay is passionate in his endeavor to build a great reliable machine, using his 25 yrs. of experience in every machine he builds. Just released are the new 1" coil "Reliable" tribute, and coming soon the "Cool Cat" and the BC model production machines. Also available are machine rebuilds and custom one offs by order. All machines and work carry a Lifetime Guarantee. See our ad in Tattoo Artist Magazine.

Bowery Stan Moscowitz, an old time tattooer(since 1948)and machine builder(S&W Tattoo Supply Co.), said about "Peg Leg" Tattoo Machines, "...some of the finest tattoo machines ever made, bar none." "Peg Leg" owners use their machines as daily runners. Bowery Stan says, "everyone should have at least 3 in their lineup." That's quite a compliment coming from 6 decades of experience. Other Tattoo Artists that own "Peg Leg" Tattoo Machines are: Lyle Tuttle, Jack Rudy, Shahn Anderson, Gil Montie, Sam Matkin, Dan Dittmer, John Black, Dano Collins, Brandon Lewis, Andy Johnson, Telisa Swan, Jen Carmean, Robert O'Neill, Byron Wallace, Mr.G, Baba Austin, Lucas Hendricx, Jimbo LeBoeuf, Michelle Hall, Kate Collins, Ben Ridgeway, Mike Pike, Papa Joe Dawson, Jesse Neese, Michael Culley, Cherokee Chuck, Mike Powell, Sailor Cam Cook, Izzy LaPlante, Wayne Kendrick, Tad Wolf, Tony Mitchell, Dave Sedano, John Boyd, Mike Martin, Dave Sucher, Bert Rodriguez, and Bowery Stan Moscowitz amongst many, more. "Peg Leg" Machines are made to stand the test of time, handemade one at a time, with care in every build. Lifetime Guaranteed.

To see past builds and sold machines go to:Past Builds & Sold Machines


To see how we build our machines go to:How we make our machines


To get more information on any of the products you see on this page, please contact 208-596-4363 or email jay@gypsy-tattooer.com