Pimped Out Prosthetics
by Anne Kelly, KFYR TV
Posted on 5/20/2009
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People choose all kinds of ways of making statements about themselves. Some do it with clothes, others with bumper stickers. And now a growing number of people are choosing to tell their story through a tattoo of sorts, one that’s a little less permanent.
Four-year-old John Michael Savage’s life is centered around Thomas the Train Engine. He has the shoes. The toys. And of course, he has all the character’s names down. So naturally, when asked what design he would like to have covering his new prosthetic arm, the answer was Thomas.
“I think the graphics is a wonderful thing for a little child because it be will interesting,” says John Michael’s mother, Margaret Savage.
John Michael is among the increasing number of prosthetic patients opting to forego the nude colored limbs for something a little more noticeable. “Nowadays people are, for lack of a better word, pimping them out, it`s sort of like Miami Ink if you will,” says Peter Davidson, a prosthetist at Great Plains Rehab Services.
He says about a third of patients he sees choose to go decorative. The designs they choose are usually on fabric and laminated onto the prosthetic as the final step in the limb-making process. Great Plains gets all types of design requests. They’ve done everything from Tweety Bird to camouflage.
Davidson says they make individuals proud of the prosthesis, but are also a huge part of the recovery process for those still adjusting to life without a limb. The grim reaper design he did recently is a good example. “The gentleman who had that made said he was so close to death that he never ever wanted to forget how bad the accident was, how close he came to death and that was the statement of his life and he wanted to tell it on his leg,” Davidson says.
John Michael isn’t so much interested in telling his story on his arm, but in being able to look at Thomas the Train all the time. And while his mother realizes he’ll grow out of this train phase, she says she’s confident he’ll outgrow the prosthetic first. There is no extra charge for patients who choose to have designs laminated on their prosthetic limbs.