How to Tattoo a Prosthetic Arm

The article originally appeared on VICE Italy

It's hard to feel unique when you're waiting to get a tattoo in a room full of hundreds of people covered entirely in ink, but that's exactly what Valentina Acciardi was. When I met the model at the Riccione International Tattoo Show in northern Italy, she was just moments away from becoming the first person ever to get a tattoo on a silicone prosthesis.

In 2004, Acciardi lost her right arm when, on her way home from a work event for Playboy, her driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. The impact sent Valentina flying through the car window, and put her in a coma for four days.

Despite not having any motor function in her prosthetic arm – which starts from her collarbone – Valentina has not allowed her accident to change her ambitions. Since the crash, she has organised several charity initiatives, written a book and even appeared on the 13th edition of Italian Big Brother. The tattoo, she told me, was just the next round of her fight.

"The idea actually came from a mutual friend of the tattoo artist, Mario Leuci," she said. "He told me they were working on this project and asked if I was interested. I thought a tattoo could be a great way of dealing with the tragedy, and help start the process of returning to a normal life."

Leuci, who has worked as a tattoo artist for 30 years, designed Valentina's tattoo – a self-portrait of the model. The process, as he explained, is more complicated than normal "because the silicone skin covering the prosthesis is waterproof, and produced in a way that doesn't allow it to be coloured. So we've had to come up with a new technique. The first step was to slightly smooth down the prosthesis' skin to open up the pores. Then I started tracing the drawing with a brush, before finally filling it in by hand using a small needle."

Unlike prosthetics, real skin contains a layer that can absorb colour and allow it expand into the tissue. Creating the tattoo by hand, Leuci explained, helped to overcome the problem. "If I used a traditional tattoo gun, the silicone skin would immediately tear," he said. "Instead, I am following a Japanese technique called stippling, which consists of endless small infusions of colour applied by hand using a much smaller needle."

Mario dipped the tip of the needle in the ink and delicately punctured the prosthesis to ensure the colour was absorbed. Later, the tattoo was covered in the same material as the prosthesis to prevent changes in temperature or contact with water from ruining it.

By the time Leuci had finished, a large crowd had gathered to ask questions and take pictures. Valentina will have to sit through more sessions to finish the tattoo, but she said she was proud to have successfully completed the first stage. In the future, Leuci hopes to develop more techniques for inking prosthetics that will pave the way for an exciting new forms of body art.