The “doctor” at work, amputating a damaged arm. PHOTO BY LARRY DALTON

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Dr. Jackson’s surgical tools are simple but effective. Using a large pair of shears, he cuts the arm off a patient who is dangling from the ceiling above the shower and holds it up with a grin.

“How cool is that?” he says. The patient, bereft of her arm, continues to gaze stupidly into the far distance, her mouth slightly agape.

Dr. Jackson doesn’t actually have a medical degree, but around the Web, he’s known as the Real Doll Doctor, and in his line of work, that counts as credential enough. Jackson, a Davis man in his 40s, has attained superstar status among devotees of high-end sex dolls for his careful repairs of Real Dolls, the world’s most lifelike sex toys.

He pokes around in the severed arm, exposing the metal and plastic “bone” and muses out loud that he might as well turn the doll into a full amputee since many of her joints are twisted out of place. There undoubtedly will be more than one person vying to buy such a doll; in fact, an earlier amputee named Helena had several requests for purchase. Helena was eventually purchased by a man from Reno who, when he came to pick her up, brought with him 1950s-era lace-on prosthetics.

Jackson, who insisted that his real name not be used, can fix almost any destruction visited on a Real Doll and is able to sell reconstructed dolls for much less than the San Marcos factory where they’re made. “I have a great reputation,” Jackson says.

Comparing Real Dolls to blow-up dolls is like comparing a Harley-Davidson to a tricycle. Real Dolls are molded around a metal frame from silicone rubber.

With 11 body types available, the company offers customers a choice of, among others, a short, busty sex doll; an athletic, small-breasted doll; and a “fantasy-type” doll that fills the cups of a double-F bra.

Customers also have a range of face-type, skin-tone, hair-color and makeup choices to make. Although the factory can’t make a custom face from a photograph, with a little effort and the right choices, a doll can be made to look very much like a specific person. A rainbow of hermaphroditic choices are also available.

The vaginal, anal and oral cavities as well as the breasts are made from a softer, more pliable silicone, and pubic hair, if a customer wants it, is hand-placed, strand by strand. Eyes can be placed staring straight ahead or demurely averted. Either way, walking around a doll and ending up in her line of vision, as it were, is disconcerting, almost as if beneath the nearly real-looking skin and the too-perfect body is a breath of soul.

Each doll weighs about 100 pounds, can withstand 400 pounds of pressure and 400 degrees of heat and has no problems taking a dip in the bath or pool. Abyss Creations, Real Doll’s manufacturer, has received requests for a Real Dog and Real Children, but the company very firmly turns those customers away.

Compared with Abyss’ price of $6,499 apiece, not to mention the $500 to ship a Real Doll and the five-month wait while the factory constructs a doll to specifications, Doctor Real Doll, who from his home in Davis buys and sells used dolls as well as refurbishing factory rejects, offers a cheaper alternative.

Dr. Bernard Apfelbaum, a Berkeley sex therapist who has proposed a theory of autosexuality, said people who prefer to have sex with themselves are probably the primary purchasers of Real Dolls, and a doll wouldn’t necessarily get in the way of a “healthy” relationship.

“Many of these men are loners, or at least very shy people who are not going to have a relationship with anyone anyway,” Apfelbaum said. “It’s an especially useful example of the gender gap, maybe chasm, which might make women think twice about their growing inclination to take men as their sexual role models.”

The Real Doll Doctor, however, refrains from questioning his customers’ reasons for purchase.

A slight man with a bad limp, Jackson has close-cropped, dark hair and a face he keeps expressionless, much like his dolls’. When he’s talking about something that interests him—such as Real Doll repair—his whole body takes on expression, his voice rises exuberantly, and his eyes goggle slightly from his head.

But most of the time, the doctor maintains a mix of Georgia charm (from his birthplace) cut with California ease. Most customers, however, don’t stick around long enough to meet that side of the Real Doll Doctor. Although he doesn’t question his customers’ sexual needs, Jackson said his refurbished dolls are preferable because they’re usually cheaper than the factory’s and require less wait time.