Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have developed color-changing tattoo ink that responds to variations in bodily fluid.
Dermal Abyss is a proof-of-concept from MIT that turns the body’s surface into an interactive display.
“It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry,” the scientists said, emphasizing that “this is a research project,” and there are no current plans to develop Dermal Abyss or pursue clinical trials.
That’s too bad. Because this new science sounds really great—particularly for folks who suffer from diabetes and other medical conditions.
Diabetics currently spend their days pricking a finger to monitor the glucose in their blood. But what if that recurring painful procedure could be replaced with a one-time painful procedure—a tattoo?
Embedded biosensors transition from blue to brown as the concentration of blood sugar increases, allowing the user to keep an eye on color changes indicating the need for insulin.
Similarly, the pH sensor—measuring the alkalinity of interstitial fluid—changes from purple to pink and the sodium sensor fluoresces under a UV light, becoming a more intense green as salt intake grows.
“The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner metabolic processes in a shape of a tattoo,” according to the MIT website. “I could be used for applications in continuously monitoring such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.”
MIT is no stranger to tat tech: Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduced temporary tattoos that serve as high-tech wearables. DuoSkin uses off-the-shelf materials and electronic components to design a swipeable UI element directly on your skin.
Sync it to your phone to start and stop Spotify playlists, increase or decrease volume or brightness, and even control your laptop’s mouse.
And, researchers went beyond input devices, embedding tiny heating elements beneath thermochromic materials to devise “Couple Harmony,” a tattoo that changes color to display a user’s mood.
Gilded Monkee 