Disposable Tatoos
Researchers have found a new application for a technique originally developed for pharmaceutical products and other consumer goods. Microencapsulation was originally designed as a way to put a protective capsule around a product that would break down under certain conditions and release the contents in a specific location or at a certain time. Think time-release cold medicine. But what else can you do with the idea?
How about erasable tattoos? Not a temporary tattoo that washes off. A completely permanent tattoo - until you want it gone.
Now scientists at Brown University have made microencapsulated beads filled with dyes. These beads are mixed with a solution to make tattoo ink. Free of heavy metals and other toxins, the ink is safer than conventional products and is easily removed. When you want to wipe "Veronica" or "Jake" off your arm, a single laser treatment breaks the beads, allowing the body to naturally expel the dye trapped inside and bring a formal end to that old fling.
Currently, it takes about six or seven laser treatments to remove a tattoo using traditional inks.
This will be a boon to future generations when they realize that permanently printing the name of a short-lived, one-hit wonder band across the back of your neck is not a career enhancing move. (I saw that recently on a clerk in a store.)
By Quilly Mammoth, Wednesday, 11 July , 2007 @ 9:33 pm
Or think of the future Republican Woman’s Club members who want that Tramp Stamp from a trip to Panama Beach erased!
By Adam_Y, Thursday, 12 July , 2007 @ 6:55 am
It’s great isn’t it, that we’ve had to design removable tatoos because people can’t really be trusted not to get dumb tats.
Wino forever anyone?