In August of 2020, Joe Tomasulo of Kentucky was in a motorcycle accident and severely injured his arm. Six years later, in September 2026, he had surgery to have the injured arm removed. The loss was devastating for Tomasulo. “I was a guitar player, pool player, I was a chef, a mechanic, basically everything that involves like two hands,” Tomasulo told WHAS11. “I lost all that, but, you know, I had to just make do with what I had.”
After the surgery, Tomasulo attended a barbecue and received an incredible gift from his cousin, Kevin Michael. Before the barbecue, Michael spent 48 hours crocheting his cousin a prosthetic arm, complete with blood at the top where it was cut off and a detachable bone sticking out.
Michael has a website called Thunderstitch where he sells “crocheted curiosities, wearable nightmares, and stuffed souls stitched one crooked detail at a time.” So a bloody arm with a bone sticking out was right up his alley.
“As soon as I gave it to him, he throws it on, and it’s like Joe from four or five years ago,” Michael told WHAS11. “I really wanted him to have something right now because I saw how he was feeling right after the amputation. So I just sat there.”
“I couldn’t stop smiling. We all had a great time, and we hugged over it. It was really a wholesome experience, and about a few minutes later, I went to the bathroom, put it on, walked out, and gave everyone high-fives and whatnot. This is really awesome,” Tomasulo said.
Tomasulo celebrated his new arm by posting photos on Reddit that quickly went viral. In the post, he saluted his cousin. “I recently had my right arm amputated at the elbow after years of living with a traumatic brachial plexus injury,” Tomasulo wrote. “My cousin Kevin handmade this full-size wearable arm for me, complete with individual fingers and removable anatomical pieces. It isn’t a medical or functional prosthesis, it’s wearable fiber art that gave me confidence and something meaningful to wear after surgery. The original arm pictured is my personal gift and will never be sold. I’m still blown away by what he created.”
The post received a lot of love. “That is amazing, and I’d be beyond flattered if someone spent 48 hours of their life on something so heartfelt for me,” one commenter wrote.
“What a beautiful act of love and craft. Kevin is amazing,” another added.
Some picked up on the cousins’ great sense of humor and added some of their own levity.
“I found it humerus.”
“He’s part Muppet now though.”
“Wouldn’t mind ordering one, but i imagine it would cost an arm and a leg.”
“Oh look, it’s Johnny knittinghand!”
“This is nice but maybe your cousin should have spent those 48 hours helping you look for your arm.”
Michael started making dolls and toys as a child out of necessity. “We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, and I would have to make my own action figures by gluing paper dolls to cereal boxes… they didn’t last long, but they were kick-ass [lol],” Michael told Upworthy. “I moved to New York for a while, and didn’t have much to do, so I found a crochet book in a thrift store and learned how to crochet from the instructions in the back…It was definitely a cool icebreaker to be able to show a new friend the cool stuff I could make.”
Obviously, losing an arm in a tragic accident is nothing to cheer about. Still, life is about making the best of dire circumstances, and Michael did a fantastic job of what cousins do best: taking a hard family situation and bringing some humor to ease the pain.
You can see more of Michael’s creations at Thunderstitch.
