holly pitre: pentientiary tattoo gun series

‘penatentiary tattoo gun #1’ from the ‘sorry I haven’t written in so long’ project by holly pitre toothbrush, ball point ink pen, hand-held cassette player parts, AA batteries and tape, approx. 25 x 6 x 3cm

since 2009, american artist holly pitre has continued working on the long-term collaboration ‘sorry I haven’t written in so long’, which explores the nature of connection through a multi-project collection with her incarcerated brother. by maintaining communication with her sibling primarily through the letters they write to each other, ‘the penitentiary tattoo gun’ series, interprets her brother’s concise with written instructions in order to build a group of tattoo machines similar to those made and used by inmates in his institution. using a toothbrush, ball-point ink pen, cassette player parts and aa batteries, the contraption becomes fully motorized.

pitre is now working on a series of drawings using these machines.

‘penatentiary tattoo gun #2’ from the ‘sorry I haven’t written in so long’ project toothbrush, ball point ink pen, hand-held cassette player parts, AA batteries and tape, approx. 26 x 13 x 5cm

‘penatentiary tattoo gun #3’ from the ‘sorry I haven’t written in so long’ project toothbrush, ball point ink pen, hand-held cassette player parts, AA batteries and tape, approx. 26 x 5 x 3cm

‘penatentiary tattoo gun #4’ from the ‘sorry I haven’t written in so long’ project toothbrush, ball point ink pen, hand-held cassette player parts, toy car remote control and wire, AA batteries and tape, approx. 26 x 24 x 5cm

installation view, casa tomada, são paulo, brazil

tattoo gun test video

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.