We were actually busy working on a completely different article for Braille 200 when we unexpectedly came across something bizarre that we definitely want to share with you.
It is an article from the archives of the German magazine Der Spiegel.
You can find the original German article here.
A short English summary follows.
Summary
As part of an assignment set by her professor, art student Klára Jirková explored the question of what purpose tattoos could serve for blind people. After all, pictorial or written tattoos cannot be perceived without the sense of sight. As a creative response, she developed the idea of body implants in the form of small metal beads that would be placed under the skin so that they could be felt as Braille.
She planned to place the beads between the thumb and index finger, for example, so that a Braille message—such as a name—could be read when shaking hands. She found inspiration in the work of US body jewelry artist Steve Haworth, who implanted various motifs under the skin.
At the time, however, her project was still entirely in the conceptual stage. All that existed were computer-generated images showing what such beads might look like as raised dots on the skin – “like pimples,” as the article puts it. Jirková had not yet found a doctor willing to perform such implants, nor a volunteer willing to undergo the procedure.
In addition, numerous technical questions remained unanswered: Which material would be most compatible? Jirková leaned toward titanium or stainless steel, as she knew from her own experience that titanium is well tolerated. How large would the beads need to be to be palpable but harmless? Should they lie completely under the skin or protrude slightly? And how could the Braille dots remain permanently legible even though they would be touched regularly?
Jirková emphasized that her concept should not be understood as a fashionable gimmick or superficial provocation towards blind people, but as a serious artistic exploration of the task at hand. Nevertheless, she could not imagine such implants for herself—she saw herself primarily as an artist, not as someone who strives for radical body modification.
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