Tattoos with a Purpose

Kathmandu, Nepal, First International Conference of Infectious Diseases and Nanomedicine – Nano technology is still in its infancy and we are constantly amazed at the leaps and bounds this field makes. The textile industry, and cosmetics industry have been successfully using this for some time and continues to evolve the technology with amazing results but it is its use in the medical industry that really begins to show the potential for integrating this into our lives in a way that we can’t even imagine. This week in Katmandu at ICIDN 2012 some seriously smart people will be discussing the potential for integrating electronics into our bodies for healing purposes. The marriage of biology and technology is not as far-away a concept as you might think. At Northeastern University in Boston, tattoos with color changing inks are being researched to use in controlling your diabetes. The nano technology changes the color of the ink and depending on how it is programmed to interact with our biology it can tell us when our glucose levels are too low, sense sodium levels, and more. To think that a piece of hardware that is one-billionth of a meter in size can carry the kind of information that can regulate body temperature, tell us about our bodies condition or sense of emotion really propells us into future.

On a more superficial level (no pun intended) another concept which has 5 years under its belt was developed by Philips Design Probe (a division of Philips in The Netherlands) “The SKIN Tattoo project investigates the use of “electronic” ink that would allow people to have dynamic tattoos with an infinite number of display options. In much the same way as make-up is put on and taken off to suit the occasion, a tattoo could alter whenever desired. The tattoos could even change in response to gestures or emotions, which opens up novel ways of communicating and interacting with others” check out the beautiful video that proposes that the inks respond to touch and desire . Wow! Maybe I will wait a couple of years to get that second tattoo because i want this technology in my body art!