Auto Ink: An Art Machine

Artist Chris Eckert designed and build an ink machine. The main idea was to make it a tattoo machine, but currently it is fitted with a custom ink pen. The idea for the machine is inspired by religion. Chris believes that you are born into your religion, thus being defined by geography. Chris states that religion should unite every one from different religion instead of excluding people, which is what most religion do.

It took a year to design, build and program the machine, which I must say is something you might come across hidden in centuries old pyramid or an artifact designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

The machine works as follow:

Auto Ink is a three axis numerically controlled sculpture. Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and its corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the persons arm. The operator does not have control over the assigned symbol. It is assigned either randomly or through divine intervention, depending on your personal beliefs.

If the machine was fitted with a tattoo gun I think every tattoo die harder would try it out. After all, religion symbols are wildly used as tattoos just for their design or other personal meaning.

This is the coolest and most ingenious machine I have seen build by one person. As long as it is fitted with an ink pen I wouldn’t mind trying it out.

Check out Chris’s weblog detailing the build process and the Auto Ink page with photos and text.