This is probably the oldest bit of news you’ll ever see get posted on CrunchGear, but I came across this today and just had to share. See, it’s a robotic tattoo machine that’s being powered by a Palm IIIxe (maybe?) that’s simply running Palm OS.
Freddy, as Niki Passath likes to call it was debuted in Vienna back in 2002. It’s unclear what other equipment is used in this mad scientist project, but Niki was the sole guinea pig for Freddy. On the plus side, whatever he drew on the Palm’s digitizer was what was tattooed on him.
“It was a hard job because the only person I could test it on was myself which was painful but a good incentive to get it right as soon as possible.
“He’s an artist of course so he always decides what design the person is going to get, they can’t choose. But I haven’t had any complaints yet.”
via Palm Info Center
I would complain if that hack job of a question mark was put on my forearm.
this is ridiculous! look at the lines it made. you would better be off getting it done by a professional tattoo artist.
First of all, it tattoos whatever is inputted on the Palm, so, yeah, the original sketch is wacky so that’s what it tattooed.
Was that all the die dripping from the guy’s arm??
I have to give props to whomever invented this despite the fact that it definitely has some kinks that need to be worked out…you may need to establish a tighter pull on the skin and make sure that the needle is not stalling too long in any area. There are parts of the line that are blown out and other parts that aren’t fully in. Over all it’s a cool novelty but, luckily, I don’t think a robot will ever be an adequate replacement for a real artist….If you want to invent something really useful you should try coming up with a wireless tattoo machine.