Full Metal Tattooist

Artist’s Prosthetic Arm Doubles as a Tattoo Gun

It’s a not ready for daily use or mass production yet, but it’s impressively precise.

The future of prosthetic arms is here, and it looks dope as hell.

A video posted to the Facebook page “Steampunk Tendencies” on Tuesday shows what could be the world’s first prosthetic arm designed specifically for tattoo artists.

French artist JL Gonzal created the arm for Lyon-based tattoo artist JC Sheitan. In a Facebook post, Gonzal said he integrated pieces of a typewriter, manometer, and various pipes to Sheitan’s existing prosthesis to give Sheitan the dexterity to make tattoos.

The arm itself looks like something straight out of a Bioshock game, but appears to have impressive precision in real life.

In the video, Sheitan seems to have no problems using the badass mechanism. According to Gonzal’s Facebook post, the video was taken of Sheitan’s first attempt using the arm to tattoo somebody.

Though the design is incredible, don’t expect to be able to buy your own just yet. In response to a comment on his reposting of the video on Youtube, Sheitan said the arm was a prototype “exhibition” prosthesis. Sheitan also noted that he used disposable cartridges and needles when using the arm to tattoo, and though all the machine’s fixations can be taken off to be cleaned and sterilized, the process takes so long that it’s not practical for daily use yet.

Still, stuff like this makes it seem like it won’t be long till we’ve got fully bionic bodies.

Both the designer and the tattoo artist were not immediately available for comment.

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Peter Slattery

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