Horst Streckenbach- Tattoo Samy. (Patreon)

From Wikipedia:

Streckenbach and Kohrs pioneered many jewelry designs including the fixed bead ring and internally threaded barbells. Samy introduced Jim Ward to barbell style jewelry. "The first barbells I recall came from Germany. Doug had made contact with Tattoo Samy, a tattooist and piercer from Frankfurt. Over the years Samy came to the States a number of times and frequently showed up in LA to visit Doug. On one of his first visits he showed us the barbell studs that he used in some piercings. They were internally threaded, a feature that made so much sense that I immediately set out to recreate them for my own customers." -Jim Ward

 Phil Andros: "A German tattoist named Horst Streckenbach invented a radically different tattoo pen, with each instrument containing its own small motor was attached an irregular camwheel that furnished the up and down movement."

Using our Nodal Point model- tracking individuals, events, innovations that led to influence other influential individuals, events, innovations- Tattoo Samy creates a pretty bright node. Introducing internally threaded barbells to Jim Ward, his work with the rotary tattoo machine, being the first tongue piercing documented by PFIQ (1) - he's an often overlooked figure in body art history. 

This video was shot in the 1980s and while we've done everything we can to clean up the audio/video, it's still pretty rough. 

1. While Horst's tongue piercing was the first documented by PFIQ, it's by no means the first documented pierced tongue.