Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a low-cost, painless, bloodless, self-administered tattoo with several techniques.
Lead investigator on the paper Mark Prausnitz said: 'We have miniaturized the needle so that it is painless, but we are still effectively depositing tattoo ink into the skin management."
Prausnitz, Regent Professor and Chair of J. Erskine Love Jr. in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, presented the research in iScience, with Georgia Tech Postdoctoral Fellow Sung Lee as co-author.
Tattoos are used in medicine to cover up scars, direct radiotherapy for recurrent cancer, or restore nipples after breast surgery.
Tattoos, in place of bracelets, can also be used as medical alerts to inform serious medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy or allergies.
There are already many cosmetics that use micro-needle in the market, mostly for anti-aging, but the development of micro-needle technology for tattooing is something new.
Prausnitz has studied microneedle patches for years to give drugs and vaccines to the skin, without the need for hypodermic needles.
"We saw this as an opportunity to leverage our work in micro-needle technology to make tattooing easier," said Prausnitz. "While some people are willing to accept the pain and time involved in tattooing, we thought others might prefer tattoos that are simply pressed into the skin and don't hurt."
According to the researchers, this tattoo can be used in the skin of animals without causing them pain, instead of cutting the ear or putting an ear tag on the animals to indicate the state of sterilization, a painless and discreet tattoo can be placed instead.