Some can, and some less so. The difference is in the length of the front spring, and of the armature bar. Sometimes all you have to do is change the front spring,and where before you had a liner, hitting at 1/32" of an inch deep, now you have a shader, hitting at 2/32" into the skin; the needles being flush with the tip when not under power. A very slight length more on the spring, and you've got a graywash shader, or color packer. Some machines are more suited to modification than others.