NILES — Local artist and Niles native Shawn Andersen first saw normally bland medical helmets painted in intricate designs on Facebook. A promotional post on his newsfeed showed a baby wearing a medical helmet painted to look like an old-time aviator helmet, goggles and all.

The painter was Paula Strawn of Washington. According to her website, she has painted more than 3,000 medical helmets, which are worn by infants to correct their head shape.

“For someone to do that for a kid is inspirational,” Andersen said.

Andersen decided that he wanted to do something similar to Strawn’s art project. He is offering to airbrush designs onto medical helmets for free. The designs are entirely up to the guardians of the infants wearing the helmets.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, medical helmets are meant to be worn at all times, save for bathing and helmet cleaning. Helmets may need to be worn for multiple months for cranial shaping to be corrected.

Not all insurance companies cover the cost of a medical helmet, meaning a helmet could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Strawn’s pricing starts at $150. Andersen’s pricing is free. All families interested in the tattoo and airbrush artist’s service need to do is to ask for him at Order and Chaos Tattoo Emporium at 116 S. 11th St. Then, he will work out a design and a few-hour time slot to design the helmet.

Andersen said there are a few reasons why he does not want to charge for helmet airbrush painting.

First is the cost of medical helmet therapy and a lack of variety in helmet design.

“I don’t want to charge anyone because why should they have to pay for it when their kid is basically forced to wear the helmet to reshape their head?” Andersen said.

Second, he wants families of infants wearing medical helmets to be looked at in awe rather than in judgment.

“There’s a lot of cruel people in this world, you know?” Andersen said. “It’s one less thing that someone gets to judge someone else on.”

Andersen said that children are the most likely to point and stare at those who are different. With a painted medical helmet, children will point out a painted medical helmet for how “awesome” it is rather than how different from the norm it is.

When someone who wore a helmet as an infant looks back at old photographs, Andersen wants them to see moments that might normally be embarrassing as something to be fond of.

Finally, Anderson does not want to charge because he wants to make his artistry more than profit and promotion.

“It’s not just myself and me,” he said. “I mean, that’s how you make it the world, when you just think about yourself. But you don’t really make a difference or an impact in the world when you just think about yourself. You [have] got to think of others.”

Andersen, who has been working with Order and Chaos since it was renamed and redesigned in October 2018, specializes in “cartoony” art, which he thinks is a great fit for airbrushing art for children. While he has not airbrushed a medical helmet before, he has had experience airbrushing sports helmets.

One word continually came to Andersen’s mind when he spoke about airbrushing for others: inspiration.

“One artist can always make a little bit of a difference to inspire other people,” he said.