As we have seen in the past, it doesn’t matter if you’re blind, deaf, or missing certain limbs. If you truly desire to create art, you will find a way to do so. Such is the case with JC Sheitan Tenet who is a tattoo artist who unfortunately lost his lower right arm 22 years ago. Fortunately for Tenet, he recently acquired a prosthetic arm that also doubles as a tattoo machine.
This arm was created in partnership with Gonzal, an artist and an engineer in which through their efforts, the first prototype was born. The arm consists of parts made from a record player and a sewing machine, and according to Tenet, in its current form the arm is actually a pleasure to use as it is relatively light. However the only downside is that it is incredibly tedious to clean.
If you’ve ever gotten a tattoo or if you are a tattoo artist, you know that the cleanup process is a long and meticulous one as it is, so you can only imagine that since you can’t just toss the arm away like you would with the plastic caps that old your ink, or the rubber gloves you wear, or the clingwrap on the table, that Tenent needs to go over every inch of the arm to ensure that it is sterile for the next customer.
That being said, Tenet and Gonzal do have plans to improve upon it and perhaps make it more articulate in the future. According to Tenet, “What started out as a sculpture is now something that I can use. [Gonzal and I] understood that we didn’t have to recreate a hand as a prosthetic; we just had to create a tool that is better than a hand.” In the meantime you can check out the video above to see the arm in action.