Giger inspired by mother's hospitalization and metal hip plates

Leading from

The development of Giger's Art

a) Inspired by mothers metal hip plates
When H.R. Giger was 17, his mother Melly had plutonium inserted into her belly to halt her cancer, it succeeded in doing this but also it destroyed her hips forcing the doctors to graft metal plates onto her thighs and this for Giger was something biomechanical.

b) Inspired by mother hooked to hospital machinery
Also seeing his mother in the hospital hooked up to machines brought the notion of interdependency between technology and biology, resulting in biomechanics.

1. The Face: Born in the Swiss Hamlet of Chur in 1940, he identifies three early influences on his bizarre imagination's evolution. The first was his mother's cancer. Giger was 17 when doctors inserted plutonium into her belly, which halted the cancer but destroyed her hips, forcing doctors to graft metal plates onto her thighs."This," he ventures, "was something biomechanical" (The Face magazine(?), Metal Guru, article by Andrew Smith) 
2. Leslie Barany: He was revolutionary in focusing on the interdependency between technology and biology, and was able to extrapolate where we were heading. He told me the notion came to him after seeing his mother in the hospital hooked up to machines (Rue Morgue #149, p19)