Imagine losing your arm when you’re an artist. That’s that career over, right? Well not if you’re JC Sheitan. After losing his arm when he was just a child, the Frenchman retrained himself to become left-handed, and incredibly, fulfilled his dream of becoming a tattoo artist.
And that’s not even the cool part.
At a recent tattoo convention in Devezieux, Sheitan met fellow Frenchman and artist JL Gonzal. The two of them talked about ways for Sheitan to use his right arm again, and Gonzal, who also happens to be an engineer, came up with this:
In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s the world’s first prosthetic arm tattoo machine.
Sheitan can control the prosthetic arm with his shoulder, but Gonzal is still working on perfecting the prosthesis and hopes the next prototype will give Sheitan more wrist mobility. At the moment, it’s not precise enough for detailed work, but it can be used for filling and shading. The needles are of course disposable, and the prosthesis can be cleaned like a regular tattoo machine.
The machine isn’t as futuristic or as complicated as it looks. It’s really just an old prosthetic arm with a tattoo machine stuck on it, but being an artist, Gonzal gave it a fantastic steampunk look. After adding parts from a typewriter and gramophone, he then gave it a rusty paint-job, and the result is a mean-machine of epic proportions.
Sheitan has said that this only version one, so we’ll have to wait and see what version two has in store. Check out the video below and for updates and examples of JC Sheitan Tenet’s work, be sure to check out his Facebook page.