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Color-Changing Tattoos

aixre
aixre
First Anniversary Second Anniversary First Post 10 Posts Third Anniversary Fourth Anniversary We Have Touchdown You Look Familiar Fifth Anniversary Final Anniversary
June 2017
edited June 2017
in Everything else
I stumbled across this article today: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/d-Abyss/overview/ It talks about color-shifting tattoo inks currently being developed for medical puposes, changing in response to blood sugar level, sodium, and pH. It seems pretty far along, although there wasn't much on the specifics of how exactly the different inks work. Still, it might be interesting to look into for both aesthetic and practical applications.

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  1. Zerbula
    Zerbula
    First Anniversary Second Anniversary Third Anniversary First Post 10 Posts 100 Posts 500 Posts You Look Familiar Paging Mr. F
    June 2017
    *^* Want. Watching. Studying.
  2. TheDiabeticGM
    TheDiabeticGM
    First Anniversary Second Anniversary First Post 10 Posts You Look Familiar
    June 2017
    OMG!!!!! This would save me soooooooooooooooooooo much money.  I would love to have a tattoo that could give me a ballpark on my blood sugar level.  Most people develop some innate sense of it over time, but if I could just look at my arm to confirm my own feelings with science.  That would be amazing.  Thank you so much for sharing this.  I wish this was available currently.
  3. Zerbula
    Zerbula
    First Anniversary Second Anniversary Third Anniversary First Post 10 Posts 100 Posts 500 Posts You Look Familiar Paging Mr. F
    June 2017
    A video I've seen seems to indicate it has to do with 'biosensors'. But said nothing more than that.
  4. Hylyx
    Hylyx
    First Anniversary Second Anniversary Third Anniversary Fourth Anniversary First Post 10 Posts You Look Familiar Fifth Anniversary
    June 2017
    edited June 2017
    Going out on a limb to hypothesize that the "tattoos" would consist of a biosensor (for blood sugar, let's say), and then a electric-responsive "ink" that that some electronics convert the biosensor readings to a voltage applied across the "ink" to change the color. (Something like this: http://mashable.com/2015/01/06/e-ink-dynamic-color/) would love to see how they're solving the interminable skin-conductivity problem.
    Definitely also attempting to keep tabs on this.

  5. cyborgmermaid
    cyborgmermaid
    June 2017
    Hi everyone!

    So the paper will be available probably only in october, but if you like to read it, just need to look for >

    Vega, K. ; Jiang, N. ; Yetisen, A. K. ; Kan, V. ; Liu, X. ; Barry, N. ; Maes, P. ; Khademhosseini, A. ; Yun, S. H. ; Paradiso, J. The Dermal Abyss: Interfacing with the Skin by Tattooing Biosensors. ISWC2017 In Press.

    Vega's work is really amazing I suggest to look for what she's been doing!


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