Dave Hurban surgically attached his iPod Nano 6 to his arm in less than 30 minutes. (credit: Courtesy of Paul Kensey)
HOUSTON (CBS Houston) - Phone, keys, wallet are on the short list of things you don’t want to leave home without. But Dave Hurban, a 21-year old Dynasty Tattoo artist from Newfield, N.J., made sure his iPod would be something he’d never forget to grab.
After surfing the web and researching other outrageous piercings, Hurban decided his new lightweight iPod Nano 6 deserved a permanent place to live on his body; and he learned he’d be the first to do so.
Hurban has worked in the piercing industry for more than three years and is certified through the state of New Jersey. With the same technique he’d use to pierce his clients, he mapped out the placement on his arm and inserted four magnetic dermals into his arm to match the four corners of the iPod. Once healed, his iPod just clicks in and out of its built-in holder.
The whole procedure took Hurban less than 30 minutes to complete; and he says the implant location of his arm, which he pierced on Apr. 19, healed enough in two weeks for him to be able to jog with it, move freely and bend his wrist completely.
“It feels like I’m wearing a watch,” Hurban said. “You get used to it. It’s like when you wear the same ring all the time. It can get knocked off if you bump it too hard.”
But what happens when manufacturers release a new version of that iPod? Hurban couldn’t care less. He really barely uses it as an iPod but more so as a watch.
“If I think it’s awesome, then that’s it,” he said as he strolled through the aisles of booths at the Baltimore Tattoo Convention. “That’s all I really care about.”
Hurban says he’s received only positive feedback at the tattoo convention and that his little contraption has caught the eye of many stopping by his shop’s booth.
“More than 35 people have told me to my face they wanted the same thing,” Hurban said, even though he doesn’t yet know if he’ll market his idea or perform it on others.
Even Hurban’s mother, who he says “doesn’t even know how technology works,” told him she liked it.
