The Micro needle Tattoo Technique That Could Make Tattooing Painless
By Sidra Lackey
A painless tattoo is an oxymoron and doesn’t seem to exist without numbing cream. However, scientists at Georgia Tech claim they have created painless tattoos by using microneedles to imprint a design into the skin. This “press-on” tattoo technique can even be self-administered. How cool and easy, does that sound?!
Unfortunately the current stage of the microneedle tattoo technique is more for medical tattoo applications (for example: to cover up scars, guide repeated cancer radiation treatments, restore nipples after breast surgery or used instead of bracelets to communicate serious medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy or allergies) and not cosmetic tattoo applications. Professor Mark Prausnitz, who led the innovative work at Georgia Institute of Technology explained in The Guardian science piece, “Microneedle tattoo technique could make tattooing painless and fast”: “This could be a way not only to make medical tattoos more accessible, but also to create new opportunities for cosmetic tattoos because of the ease of administration. While some people are willing to accept the pain and time required for a tattoo, we thought others might prefer a tattoo that is simply pressed onto the skin and does not hurt.”
Tattooing is a time-consuming and painful process. Tattoos usually use large needles to penetrate the skin between 50 and 3,000 times a minute to deposit ink below the skin’s surface.
Prausnitz’s Georgia Tech team realized while researching the use of microneedles for administering vaccines, that the work could be applied to tattoos. The Georgia Tech team created microneedles made of tattoo ink, “encased in a dissolvable matrix. By arranging the microneedles in a specific pattern, each one acts like a pixel to create a tattoo image in any shape or pattern, and a variety of colors can be used.” The research showed that the tattoos can last for at least a year and, “were likely to be permanent,” (temporary tattoo ink can also be filled with microneedles) which then would make the tattoos an effective cosmetic alternative.
Professor Mark Prausnitz said, “The goal isn’t to replace all tattoos, which are often works of beauty created by tattoo artists. Our goal is to create new opportunities for patients, pets, and people who want a painless tattoo that can be easily administered.”
The microneedle tattoo technique seems too good to be true. But if this painless and faster tattoo application truly becomes available in the future for usage of cosmetic tattoos, it could change the tattoo industry. Especially if one could give themselves a press-on, painless, permanent tattoo. Tattoo collectors, would you opt to try a microneedle tattoo? Tattoo artists, do you think the microneedle tattoo technique could possibly overtake traditional tattooing methods? And if so, is that a good or bad thing?