This Tattoo Artist Didn’t Let Being Born Without Arms Derail His Dream

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From an early age Brian Tagalog loved drawing and wanted to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. Tagalog put in a ton of work perfecting his artistic skills over the years and eventually started learning how to use a tattoo machine. But the odds were still stacked against him and most people didn’t think he’d ever be able to achieve his dream considering the massive disadvantage Tagalog had when compared to other artists—Tagalog was born without arms.

Yes, you read that correctly, Tagalog is a tattoo artist that works exclusively with his feet. For 11 years Tagalog has been using a unique method to create tattoos, as he explained to Oddity Central. First he uses his right foot to draw the design on to the stencil paper. Then as he uses one foot to stretch the client’s skin he uses the other to place the stencil. Once he gets down to business tattooing he uses both feet to operate the machine, which in the video below appears to be a standard machine and not a specially customized model designed for feet.

Tagalog struggled to find a job in a tattoo shop over the years, people just didn’t show any faith in him being able to perform the job without arms. So he did what many an enterprising artist does—opened up his own shop. Tagalog can be found at Tattoos by Foot in Tucson, Ariz., passionately defying everyone that told him to give up his dreams on a daily basis. It’s almost impossible to watch the video below without being inspired by the work that Tagalog does. Seeing what he can accomplish with a tattoo machine, his two feet and an enormous amount of hard work really makes you feel that nothing is impossible. You can see some of Tagalog’s work in the gallery under the video.