Nanotechnology and Tattoos

This week I read about “nano tattoos” that can help diabetics track their sugar levels. The glucose tattoo is made from fluorescent nanoparticle ink that is injected under the skin, and will reflect infrared light in response to glucose through a monitor worn over he skin. The ink would last about six months before it needs to be refreshed. 

After reading about how “nano tattoos” can help diabetics track their sugar levels. The idea I have is having nano tattoos monitor health of a person. It will monitor heart rate, temperature, and all the necessary data to predict and prevent illness. The tattoo could possibly predict someone’s health problems before symptoms appear, predict a baby’s cold before it gets worse, or even diagnose cancer early? 

After doing some research, there are recent articles about the use of this kind of technology. The software company Chaotic Moon has developed a “tech tattoo” that tracks a person’s financial and medical information. This tattoo monitors if a person is about to get sick. Instead of going to the doctor once a year for physical, the tattoo can monitor everything and sends the data to your doctor, if there’s anything wrong they could call you. 

This tattoo would also carry your financial information! “We carry wallets around and they are so vulnerable. With the tech tattoo you can carry all your information on your skin and when you want your credit card information or your ID, you can pull that up automatically through the system,” says Eric Schneider, company’s hardware creative technologist. 

Obviously, someone has thought of this sort of idea already, but what are can nanotechnology do to make this idea better? Even smaller electronics? Maybe it doesn’t even look like a “device” on your skin, the the photo from Chaotic Moon showed below. What if the tattoo can be invisible?  

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Citations 

Trafton, Anne. "'Tattoo' May Help Diabetics Track Their Blood Sugar." MIT News. N.p., 28 May 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

Q, By Charles. "Needle-Free Tattoos Can Check Diabetics' Sugar Levels." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

"Seen At 11: Company Developing 'Tech Tattoos' So People Can Track Their Medical, Financial Info." CBS New York. N.p., 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

Devon, L.J. "Mark of the Medical Beast: 'Tech Tattoos' Will Store Your Personal Medical and Financial Information on a Microchip Embedded in Your Skin." NaturalNews. N.p., 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

"BIOWEARABLES: Tech Gets Skintimate | CHAOTIC MOON STUDIOS." CHAOTIC MOON STUDIOS. N.p., 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.