There are people out there making seriously good money with their hands, quite literally. Professional hand models can pull in anywhere from $300 to $3,000 a day, sometimes more if their fingers end up in a global ad. It’s a gig George Costanza once famously lost to a hot iron on Seinfeld, but for 35-year-old Avisha Tewani, it’s become a full-blown career.
Tewani, a New York stylist turned hand model, works with Dior, Chanel, Coca-Cola, and Kylie Cosmetics. Her career started with a happy accident. A family member asked her to fill in for a wedding-ring shoot, and when the photos came out, someone suggested she send them to a modeling agent. A week later, she was booked. “They had me working within the first week or two,” she told New York Post. What began as a one-off gig has become a full-time hustle—she now has separate agents for her hands, legs, ears, and even her neck.
The tradeoff is constant caution. “I used to love boxing as a workout, but I stopped,” she said. “I couldn’t take that chance anymore.” She’s also ditched city bikes after a wrist injury and wears gloves for dishes to protect her manicures like a national treasure. Before every shoot, she gets her nails done to match the brand’s aesthetic, then spends the day avoiding any potential chip or scratch.
The Wild Amount of Money You Can Make Just by Being a Hand Model
A workday can last anywhere from two to twelve hours, and bookings sometimes arrive at 7 a.m. the same morning. Crews can range from five people to thirty, all focused on one hand. “The client doesn’t always know what they’re looking for,” she said. “You have to make the product look beautiful and your hand look good at the same time.”
Her favorite job so far was a Chanel Valentine’s campaign where she spent two days holding a live dove. The manicure changed several times, and her paycheck was worth all the acetone. “Being a middle skin tone person right now is a very good thing for the industry,” she added, crediting the shift toward diversity.
Hand modeling might sound absurd until you realize it’s both lucrative and oddly high-stakes. One bad bruise or torn cuticle and you’re out for weeks. George Costanza wasn’t wrong—it’s dangerous work being this delicate.
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