I met Ben Katz of Etchstar.com–home to engraved iPods, engraved MacBooks, and other awesome custom electronics–at a recent LA tech meetup. He handed me an awesome all-metal business card, and we struck up a quick conversation.

Ben offered me a nice deal on an etching for my MacBook Pro. I thought about for a few days and realized that the only art I’d want on my machine would be the work of Heisuke Kitazawa, A.K.A. “PCP” (which has nothing to do with the drug by the same name), an emerging contemporary Japanese artist. I have a copy of his painting “i’ll always make time to write/2005” hanging in my living room. (This same painting also adorns at least one chic hotel room.)

I went through PCP’s illustration file and tested a few images in B&W on the engraving template. His “everyday is sunday, baby” print really resonated with me, and seemed like it would look great on the MacBook Pro. I reached out to PCP who offered to give me permission to engrave and send me the B&W line art if I bought the print.

So I did! The B&W line art looked great, and with a couple of minor changes I was able to line it up on the template perfectly. A quick call to Ben got me a 6:00 appointment at Etchstar, where Bill and Denny prepped the file in CorelDraw and sent it to the laser.

I expected to be more anxious about handing over a $2,800 computer to folks wielding a Class IV laser, but the team exuded competency and confidence and I had no reservations whatsoever. The process took about 40 minutes, but, boy, am I thrilled with how it all turned out. Check it out!