Automated art: Give it a hand

AMONG the many wonders of the Little Tokyo Shopping Center is the new Finger Star, a cream-and-metallic-pink nail-art machine on wheels that will decorate your fingernails with hearts or unicorns or, actually, any of 1,000 patterns. With its manga-girl voice instructions and Snoopy Sno-Cone DIY appeal, the creation seems destined to be co-opted, much like Hello Kitty, by young women. At $1 a nail, the price is right.

You can also take a photo of yourself with the built-in camera and work it into a design with affirmations such as “I’m So Fine!” Once you’ve snapped your finger into the little plastic bed, Finger Star takes about 30 seconds to work its mysterious magic. Sometimes you feel a brush on your nail; sometimes you don’t. When it’s finished, Finger Star’s sweet voice asks, “How do you like it?” And then tells you, “Pretty and unique!”

The poster above the machine shows photos of nails with perfectly applied designs, but the actual results are spotty. A green jalapeno, for instance, looks more like a deflated serrano. But it’s not all bad: The black-and-gray leopard pattern looks pretty cool in that 13-going-on-30 kind of way.

-- Margaret Wappler