Science and Culture: Wearable tech meets tattoo art in a bid to revolutionize both

Engineer and artist Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao was browsing through Vogue a few years ago when an article about temporary metallic-colored tattoos caught her eye. Staring at the glittering shapes that wrapped like jewelry around a model’s wrist, Kao wondered if they were conductive. She envisioned the possibilities: on-skin user interfaces that worked as a touch pad, displayed information, or even stored and transmitted data. Inspired by the trend of metallic tattoo art, the researchers behind DuoSkin designed a process for making gold-leaf temporary tattoos that can function like a track pad, communicate information wirelessly, or change color with body temperature. Image courtesy of Jimmy Day/MIT Media Lab. It turns out the tattoos weren’t conductive. But with the help of colleagues at MIT and Microsoft Research, Kao, an MIT Media Lab PhD candidate, created some that were. The resulting innovation, DuoSkin, is a publicly available fabrication process that enables anyone with access to a craft store, graphic design software, and inexpensive electronics to create gold-leaf temporary tattoos with myriad functions—from advancing songs on a music player to changing color with body temperature (1). At New York Fashion Week in 2017, models donned DuoSkin tattoos that transmitted information about the garments to audience members’ smart phones. Tattoos, both temporary and permanent, have mass appeal. According to a 2010 Pew Research Center report, nearly 40% of millennials have at least one permanent tattoo (2). Like Kao, a growing number of researchers are responding to this trend by creating wearable technologies in the form of temporary and even permanent tattoos. The tattoos now in development carry real practical and medical import, from doubling as electronics to harvesting health information. But researchers agree that to gain widespread use the tattoos must also visually impress. “You have to consider aesthetics,” says Kao. “Anything on the body …