Tattoos are no longer a social or professional taboo. Tattoos are now a mainstream concept that is very common in public and the workplace. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that 45 million Americans sport tattoos. More women than men wear ink on their skin. This change in the perception of tattoos is due to technological improvement. Nowadays, tattoos can be applied safely with fewer health risks, less pain, and more excellent permanence.
The United States currently has over 8,000 registered tattoo parlors. These generate an average of $ 3.4 billion in revenue due to popular demand. It is this booming business! It is driving innovations in technology far beyond the arena of body art and individual rebellion against societal norms. Medical, technology, and consumer electronics researchers are researching numerous potential advancements. Tattoos will bring a lot to these respective disciplines!
Scientists at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California San Diego, and the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea (KAIST) are all studying numerous applications for tattoos that function as anything from medical monitors to smartphone interfaces. Every year, more new tech startups are dedicated to changing how tattoos are applied. Tattoos can serve beyond body art and have other functions. Check out this infographic with the latest cutting-edge tattoo technology shaping the future of tattoos.
Nano-tech engineers at UC San Diego are in the process of testing temporary tattoos. These would extract and measure blood glucose levels from the fluid between skin cells. It is the first device of its kind that can provide a non-invasive method for glucose testing. This is for people who suffer from Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. This temporary tattoo also demonstrates the potential for other uses for a biomonitoring implant in measuring other metabolites within the body or as means of regulating the dosage of medicine directly into the skin.
MIT has also worked hard in the biomonitor tattoo field. It presents current research on their Dermal Abyss project. Instead of a temporary tattoo applied to the skin’s surface, these tattoos use specialized biosensor ink rather than traditional ink. Partnering with Harvard Medical School, the Dermal Abyss team developed three types of biosensor inks. These inks can measure shifts in the skin’s interstitial fluid. They can also alter their color according to the human body’s current glucose level, sodium, or pH. This project is part of an ongoing series of projects being developed for future tech implants that have been dubbed “beauty technology”. Other innovations under development include smart fake eyelashes, conductive makeup, and RFID-enabled nail polish. Such research aims to find more ways to integrate technology into appealing and functional applications for men and women.
This tech is a joint venture at MIT funded by Microsoft. It means to develop an individual fabrication process for creating individually customized functional devices. These devices will adhere directly to the skin. Using gold leaf ( a cheap, skin-friendly, and robust conductive material), artists and technology developers have created touch sensor inputs, data output displays, and even wireless communication when interfaced with mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones.
Designs tested so far have included controls for smartphones worn on the skin. There are also new message and other information displays, data vaults, and even rudimentary microphones. The purpose of the DuoSkin initiative is to eliminate the idea of on-skin tech implants being some sort of unfathomable technology with no easily adapted, user-friendly applications.
Developed by a small company called Ephemeral, this new tech in tattooing is intended to reach any individual who is uncertain about the idea of permanently inking their body. Rather than using hi-tech machinery, this innovation is thanks to specially formulated inks that are designed to fade from the skin after a year or so, with an option to use a specialized device to fade them out even faster.
Founder and CEO Seung Shin originally developed the concept because of his personal experience as a college student when he got a tattoo on his arm. His family’s reaction was highly adverse, and he eventually got the tattoo removed. However, he found the entire laser tattoo removal process quite painful, leaving unsightly scarring. After graduating from New York University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering, Shin decided to put his education and experience into developing a better temporary tattoo ink.
The secret is in the molecular structure of the ink, which Shin describes as a transparent sphere of biomaterial that is filled with smaller dye molecules. The bonds of these ink molecules naturally decay over time but can also be broken up more rapidly using a device they have developed as a part of the process. They are currently seeking investors and expect to have their temporary tattoo ink on the market by 2018.
New Deal Design is a tech firm that spearheaded much of the wearable fitness tech we see today, such as FitBit. Their current innovation, Project Underskin, is to create an intelligent digital biotech tattoo that acts as a credentials implant for opening doors in secure locations or accessing user-profiles and secure files on a computer or network. These tattoos would also have biosensor functions for personal health monitoring similar to current wearables and would even allow contact transfer of information by touching specialized sensor interfaces. This technology is still in the very early stages of development. Still, their president states that once the flexibility issue has been resolved, products that integrate these technologies for sub-dermal implants and tattoos could be available in the next ten years.
California-based artist Nate Siggard designed this fascinating technology. He worked with a team of experts in various fields to create his unique and personalized augmented reality tattoos. Using an app called SkinMotion, users upload a recorded audio message in a clip to an online server. They then have their personalized soundwave tattooed on their skin by a certified Skin Motion artist. The resulting tattoo can be scanned with the app and replayed audio clip. Other Skin Motion users can scan your tattoos and hear your audio clips. Now, making your tattoos are a visual and auditory statement. Popular choices for a Soundwave Tattoo include recordings of a loved one’s voice or a favorite song.
Tattoos and their overall perception have changed drastically in the past several decades. The taboos surrounding their application and use are changing even further thanks to cutting-edge research by innovators worldwide in every area of the sciences. While some may be concerned about the moral and personal privacy implications of wearing one’s actual identity in their skin for anyone with the proper devices to read or compromise. The fact remains that scientists are embracing this unique form of cultural art and adapting it to become a part of our future.
Mankind has been inscribing ink in its skin over the past 5,000 years of recorded history, and tattoos are far more than a passing fad or trend. The idea that an integral part of our past is quickly becoming our future is a fascinating reciprocal relationship. It all seems so fitting that one of our past innovations, once considered savage or barbaric, is not only a mainstream part of the culture worldwide, but it is soon to become a symbol of the synthesis between the ancient and the brand-new. Perhaps one day, not inking your skin will be a cultural taboo rather than the other way around.
Do you want to learn more about tattoos? How about becoming a professional tattoo artist? Ink Different Tattoo School inspires, educates, and empowers artists who embody excellence in the tattoo industry worldwide and with that, revolutionizes the possibilities and opportunities for artists to achieve total fulfillment, freedom, and financial abundance, worldwide.
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