Creating nail art with ChatGPT

In a tiny salon lit with blue light, two women sit across from each other, hand-in-hand.

They talk in quiet voices among rainbow stacks of tiny nail polish bottles. The sharp scent of solvents and adhesives hangs in the air, but neither seem to notice.

It’s been two hours already of intense concentration. Taby’s client arrived with last month’s nails already out of season, eager and excited to update the color and shape of what Taby call’s “ten tiny canvases” at the end of her fingertips. With careful precision and detailed steps, Taby has removed the loud acrylics from the soft pink keratin beneath. After cleaning and polishing her client’s natural nail beds, she’s spent the last hour applying a fresh set of acrylics with delicate strokes of glue. Dental tools come out next, sculpting and shaping each new nail to the desired arc or point. Enduring the seemingly endless pneumatic buzz and the scrape of emery boards, they are still blank.

Now, is the moment of creation. However, Taby and her client are not alone in the tight space. On the table sits Taby’s phone with ChatGPT on screen awaiting instruction.

After getting a loose idea from her client she queries her device. “We’re thinking some kind of green marble pattern on one hand and solid blocks of colors in another green with a golden pop on the other hand.”

ChatGPT replies in a peppy female voice, “How about starting with a light jade using delicate thin white lines to organically express the texture of marble and…” The voice continues on as Taby and her client listen on intently.

Tabitha “Taby” Scott is a licensed nail tech. While the chemicals and tools she uses are from the world of technology, her talent with fine brushes of color and miniature sculptural elements are more akin to art. While she blushes at being called a “nail artist”, art has always been a part of Taby’s life.

“Art has always had my heart since I was a child. So I can tell you, it was after 911 happened. I was like 10 years old, and I went to school, and I drew a little US flag on all 10 of my little nails. And that’s the first time I remember, I had to do something on my nails to represent a moment. And that’s the first time I can remember, intentionally putting art on my nails, just on my own volition.”

Taby’s interest in nails transcends the self-satisfaction of creating something beautiful. Her passion lies in the ability to share her art with others and how it affects them personally.

“You never know what anybody’s going through and how their day is and how they feel. And a lot of ’em take pride in just having a showpiece and being able to wear something for three or four weeks that maybe brightens their day and gets those compliments… It just adds a little brightness to their life and I know that. It just makes me feel good as a woman who understands what beauty does mean. So to be able to gift that to somebody, even on a small level, it’s indescribable.”

Taby has used ChatGPT before. To write copy for her copious amounts of social posts. To give her marketing strategies. Even to help her create an exercise regime and explore vegan recipes. Then, as she was experiencing a “creative block” with a tough customer, she opened ChatGPT on her phone while at work.

“The first time that I used ChatGPT for nails, I wanted to test its limitations. I know that it understands art, I know that it understands color. So I was like, let me just see… I joke with my clients all the time and they’re like, you can do anything. And I’m like, let’s zone it in, let’s bring it in. Sometimes they can. Sometimes I’m just not able to and having AI there to help me, we can go from an infinite amount of ideas to 10 or 20 and go from there. At that point I can go in and add my little flare, understanding what AI’s given me – whether it’s colors or positions, put this on this nail, this on that nail – and that way I can execute it. And ChatGPT is kinda just a partner.”

Four hours after her customer walked in the door with just a vague idea of her favorite color and the changing seasons, Taby is finished. The nails are done. Swirl of colors and the glamor on ten tiny custom canvases to uplift her client wherever she goes. Taby looks tired, but another customer is on her way. Taby’s busy, but busy is good. 

“I just think art needs that human element. I think it really does because it is so much about your emotions and self in art. ChatGPT is just a little addition, a little additive. For somebody whose job is to be creative, it can be kind of wearing and exhausting at times. So to be able to have ChatGPT to be able to help with that process and get a starting point, a spinning point, it’s really great for that.”

Start something new with ChatGPT.