The inventor, Chris Eckert, pushes the boundaries of sculpture, technology, and art. Many of his extraordinary automaton inspired machines interact with their environment. When I last checked, he was working on a device that transcribes the gospel of Mark. It, however, reacts to sound. When the machine "hears" a noise, it makes a random error in its transcription.
So what does the glamorous contraption above do?
In a way, it's an automatic tattoo machine. Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is RANDOMLY assigned a religion. Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. The symbol for that religion, for instance a cross for Christianity, a star for Judaism, a crescent moon for Islam is tattooed onto the person’s arm. The operator does NOT have control over the assigned symbol.
The inventor, Chris Ekert, made a video of the machine in action.
It looks like a joke, but in fact it's sort of real. Any tattoo artist will tell you that you need to stretch the skin when tattooing, otherwise you get some very freaky skin snags. The leather strap on the machine does pull the skin a bit, but not enough for a real tattoo. Instead the design is simply drawn on the skin with a pen while the coils give that lovely, distinctive, tattoo, chattering buzz.
Since the machine does NOT give a REAL TATTOO, your tattoo artist is safe, for now. Some day, a machine will be invented. I, however, like many others would never get an automatic tattoo. It damages the whole experience, no silly, nervous jokes, no interesting, insightful conversations, and no awkward, weird pauses after the client tells you she just had an orgasm.
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