Dave Hurban finds a 'hole' new way to hold onto an iPod - Cherry Hill Courier Post

When Dave Hurban poked four holes in his forearm, he expected a trickle of blood.

What surprised him, though, was the gush of publicity.

The 21-year-old from Williamstown in recent weeks has become a familiar face around the world, popping up in media reports from Turkey to Thailand, Finland to the Philippines.

“Dude, it’s awesome!” he told me Friday, minutes before making a live â€" if long-distance â€" appearance on Australian TV. (More about that later.)

Hurban, already notable for his tattoos and piercings, gained global attention by turning himself into a docking device for his iPod Nano. In mid-April, the professional body piercer implanted four tiny studs just beneath the skin near his left wrist, then attached magnetic tops that hold his iPod in place.

He recorded the process in a YouTube video that’s not for the squeamish â€" but that so far has drawn almost 2 million viewers. And once word of his “iDermal” invention spread online, the media came calling.

“It went from like five calls to 10 calls, to 20 to 50 to 100 in three days,” said Hurban, who’s been called “colourful” by the Pakistan Daily Times and “either crazy or an artist â€" or both” by a Swiss news site, 20 Minuten.

“I’ve done (remote) interviews with Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and England,” says Hurban, who works at Dynasty Tattoo in Newfield. “I’m waiting for someone to fly me out â€" anywhere.”

Writers have offered varied opinions on the inventor known in Zurich as Der iPod Magnet-Mann.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing Dave try to implant an iPad stand into his chest in order to do an excellent impression of the Teletubbies,” said British blogger Andrew Hoyle.

“Surely the risk of being accidentally attached to a passing bus makes the whole project … just a bit too risky,” observed Sean Nolan, an Irish blogger.

Hurban pretty much tells each reporter the same thing: “I just wanted a strapless watch.” He also notes the procedure was pretty simple and, by his standards at least, didn’t hurt.

Not everyone gets it right.

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“I’m not a tattoo artist,” he said, correcting scores of scribes. “And I didn’t perform surgery on myself.”

Another misconception: “Some people think I drilled the studs into my bone. Dude, I wish! That would be #@$#$% awesome!”

Then again, his interview style’s not always serious.

When Hurban went on a local radio show, the disc jockey tossed paper clips at the magnetic posts. “My friends have thrown bottle caps at it,” Hurban said.

And consider his antics on Friday evening, when Hurban sat alone in a studio in Philadelphia.

He was chatting with the unseen hosts of a morning show â€" a Saturday-morning show â€" somewhere in Australia.

At one point, Hurban held up a handwritten message to an Australia supermodel: “Call me.” He also apologized that the studio’s backdrop showed a staid skyline of Center City. “They wouldn’t let me put Godzilla fighting Mothra on TV,” he told the befuddled co-hosts. “I asked them like three times.”

But onscreen and off, Hurban also offers a more serious message.

“I want to inspire people to think outside the box,” he said. “This is me. I do things differently.”