Designer prosthesis featured on Popular Mechanics cover

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It is the work of UK-based Sophie de Oliveira Barata, director of The Alternative Limb Project, a specialist consultancy that works with amputees and their prosthetists to create bespoke and visually compelling artificial limbs.

As Barata explains it, the idea is not only to delight the eye, but also to help to break down social barriers and encourage a positive dialogue about the human body.

Wanting to make a statement

Editor, Alan Duggan says, "Our conversations with Barata resulted in an interesting and inspiring article in which we feature four different people, all of them delighted with their radically different prostheses. They did not want pretend-limbs; they wanted to make a statement.

"Another beneficiary of her expertise was a British ex-serviceman named Ryan Seery, who lost most of his left leg in a landmine blast in Afghanistan. He says most of the amputees he met would like an alternative limb, explaining that they tend to think of their prostheses as items of clothing, such as extended shoes or accessories.

"But for sheer put-it-out-there nerve, Moskalova takes the cake. Here is what she said after Sophie delivered her first 'alternative' prosthesis. 'The first time I wore a limb that was so obviously bionic, it gave me a total sense of uniqueness and I felt like a mutant human in the best way possible. Most importantly, when the limb is attached and I'm walking with it, my composure has a power that is beyond anything I can describe.'

"If you need evidence of that composure, think back to the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, when Moskalova performed live as the Snow Queen while wearing a Swarovski crystal-covered prosthetic leg. That was a class act by a brave and determined woman," concludes Duggan.