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Tattoos

The Illustrated Man: How LED Tattoos Could Change The Face of Humanity

By Charlie Sorrel November 20, 2009 | 9:39 am | Categories: R&D and Inventions

In Ray Bradbury’s book, The Illustrated Man, the title character is covered with moving, shifting tattoos. If you look at them, they will tell you a story.

In Ray Bradbury’s book, The Illustrated Man, the man of the title is covered with moving, shifting tattoos. If you look at them, they will tell you a story.

New LED tattoos from the University of Pennsylvania could make the Illustrated Man real (minus the creepy stories, of course). Researchers there are developing silk and silicon implantable devices which sit under the skin like a tattoo. Already implanted into mice, these tattoos could carry LEDs, turning the wearer’s skin into a screen.

The silk substrate onto which the chips are mounted eventually dissolve away inside the body, leaving just the electronics behind. The silicon chips are around the length of a small grain of rice — about one millimeter, and just 250 nanometers thick, and the sheet of silk will keep them in place, moulding to the shape of the skin when saline is added.

These displays could be hooked up to any kind of electronic device, also inside the body. Medical uses are being explored, from blood-sugar sensors that show their readouts on the skin itself to neurodevices that tie into the body’s nervous system — hooking chip to particular nerves to control a prosthetic hand, for example.

Chips are already used inside bodies, most notably the tiny RFID tags injected into pets. But the flexible nature of these “tattooed” circuits means they can move elastically with the body, sitting in places that a rigid circuit board couldn’t. The first displays are sure to be primitive but likely very useful for the patients that receive them — you won’t be getting the full-color, hi-res images that come with ink, but functional displays. This doesn’t mean that the commercial and artistic possibilities are being ignored. Philips, the electronics giant, is exploring some rather sexual uses:



It’s certainly rather creepy, but we’re sure that the inevitable next stage of playing adult movie clips on your partner’s back will be appealing to some. We, of course, are considering the geekier side of this tech. GPS, with a map readout on the back of the wrist would certainly be useful, as would chips that cover your eyeballs and can darken down when the sun is shining too bright.

And a full-body display will eventually be used for advertising. Combine this with bioluminescent ink, for example, and you could turn yourself into a small, walking version of Times Square. At least, unlike a real tattoo, you can switch this one off.

In fact, if you start to imagine the possible uses, they seems almost endless. Just like the stories that play across the body of the Illustrated Man.

Tattoo You [H+ Magazine]

Implantable Silicon-Silk Electronics [Technology Review]

Photo of real tattoo: Spacemanbobby/Flickr
Click to expand...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/ ... -humanity/
 
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Robinho move leaves tattooed Manchester City fan blue

Robinho's departure from Manchester has left one man feeling particularly blue - die-hard fan Chris Atkinson has the Brazilian's name tattooed on his chest. :)

And to make matters worse the tribute is etched next to another Samba star who never even signed for the club.

Mr Atkinson, 26, of Altrincham, got a Kaka tattoo soon after the Blues lodged a £100m bid - only for him to sign for Real Madrid. :D

The part-time Hollyoaks actor said he was "gutted" Robinho had left City.

"I got the Kaka tattoo and got quoted saying I'd get Robinho done next," said Mr Atkinson, who also works in a pub in Timperley.

"My mate had a bet with me that I wouldn't get it done - so I did it." :roll:

The Brazil international, who cost a record-breaking £32.4m when he signed for City, is joining his former club Santos on a six-month loan.

The 26-year-old forward has made only sporadic appearances this season and scored his first goal in City's 4-2 FA Cup win over Scunthorpe.

Mr Atkinson, who has about 25 tattoos, was mocked by his friends for the Kaka tattoo but is unrepentant over his Robinho ink.

"He was quality; I'm gutted he's gone," he said.

"It's only a loan deal, so you never know he might come back.

"But they're saying in the papers that he's kicked his last ball for City, so I don't know."

Despite his departure Mr Atkinson will not be covering up the names on his chest, which are displayed alongside genuine City legend Shaun Goater.

"I'll just wait until I have kids and call them Robinho and Kaka," added Mr Atkinson, who currently does not have a girlfriend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 487297.stm
 
'Branded for life': Mother's fury as under-age daughter, 16, tattooed with '100% Welsh Lamb' as a dare
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:35 AM on 17th March 2011

A seething mother says a tattoo parlour left her 16-year-old daughter 'branded for life' after inking '100% Welsh Lamb' across her backside.
Police are investigating after under-age Levi Brady, from Fairwater, Cardiff, had the tattoo without being asked to prove her age.

Schoolgirl Levi had the tattoo for a dare and managed to keep it a secret from her family for two weeks. But when she injured her hip falling off a horse her horrified mother Renee spotted it for the first time.
Mrs Brady, 38, said: 'The tattooist has branded a child as a piece of meat for the rest of her life.
'It is the most disgusting thing to have on a young girl and the location of the tattoo is grossly inappropriate - she is only 16.' Levi was with friends when she paid £30 for the blue ink design at the Tattooland parlour in Riverside, Cardiff.
But she immediately regretted it and knew it was a 'stupid' thing to do.

Mrs Brady said: 'I couldn't believe she had done such a silly thing - but the law is there to protect young people from themselves.
'People in these establishments have a duty to act responsibly rather than betraying the trust of parents.
'We need a system where every customer is logged and a photocopy of their ID is taken.' The law states that giving a tattoo to anyone under the age of 18 is illegal under the 1969 Tattooing on Minors Act.

Levi was yesterday making inquiries about having the tattoo removed by expensive laser treatment.
She said: 'I don't like it. It's not feminine - just a bit of writing permanently on me.
'It was a moment of madness - it looks stupid.' South Wales Police confirmed they were investigating a complaint against the tattoo parlour involving an under-age customer.
A spokesman said: 'We have interviewed the complainant and inquiries are ongoing.' The punishment for tattooing a minor is £50 fine - or £100 for a repeat conviction.

Cardiff Council Trading Standards are also investigating.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Gr37ufRK

A mutton-headed thing to do... ;)
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
And Mr Cool Ice on page 3!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I have to admit, Mr Cool Ice had me wondering if that was bad, or totally awesome :lol:
 
I never knew this thread existed!

I have, sadly, discovered the distortion one gets with a change in physique. Many moons ago, I got my self a tattoo of two dolphins leaping over my belly button. Now, when I breath in, I see Flipper, I breath out, Free Willy :oops:
 
I'm guessing she never got her needlework badge
 
My wife secretly wants a tattoo. I'm really not that into them, the problem (imho) is that people get them in order to express their individuality....and yet actually what happens is that they are grouped together with every other tattoo sporting person in everyone elses eyes.

Seriously though, if I HAD to get one I'd def get a naked chick wrapped around a sword standing on a skull with snakes coming out of it's eyes, that's what the tattoo parlour was INVENTED for.
 
Bloody gerrit done then! :lol:

My prize tattoo is a good old working-class 'dead loved one's name' on my left shoulder. If anyone'd like to go to the trouble of judging me on it, I will be happy to knock their block off. ;)
 
I'm the black sheep in my family, because I don't have any tattoos! Even my grandmother has one.

Although I am looking around for a good design for a full back piece these days! I think this is one of the best places around here:

http://britishinkdc.com/

I met the owner at a burlesque / fire breathing / sword swallowing show a couple of years ago and their parlor has been getting great reviews ever since.
 
There's a new tattoo parlour near here, in a corner of the market hall. I'm often tempted. In fact I may pop in tomorrow, just for a look around, y'know. :D
 
I'll have your face on one buttock and Heckler's on the other, and then I'll join a spanking club. :evil:
 
Well then i'll get your buttocks tattooed on my face including mine and Heckler's faces on your buttocks including your buttocks tattooed on my face including mine and Hecklers faces tattooed on your buttocks including your buttocks tattooed on my face including mine and Hecklers buttocks tattoed on your face.... :madeyes:
 
So, you're up for the spanking club too? And Heckler? :D
 
If anybody needs me to do some spanking...it's a bum rap, but somebody's got to do it.
 
Fry'd leg: Fan has portrait of QI host tattooed on her calf to raise £250 for Comic Relief
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:37 AM on 23rd March 2011

A shop assistant has had a portrait of her comedy hero Stephen Fry tattooed on her calf to raise money for Comic Relief.
Olivia Ketchell, 21, has so far raised more than £250 with her unique charitable effort, which took four and a half hours to complete at a tattoo parlour in Newcastle on Red Nose Day.
'I have always been a huge fan of Stephen Fry ever since QI and I have read his autobiography,' said Miss Ketchell.

'It's very funny, new and fresh and I've never seen anyone do something like this before, and of course it draws attention to the cause.
'It definitely wasn't as painful as some of the ones I have had.
'It's pretty big and nearly covers my whole calf right round from the front to the back.'

Fry is likely to approve the reason for the fundraising effort, even if he might be a little baffled by the method, because he is a high-profile patron for Comic Relief.
This year he lent his name to a new flavour of crisps - Stephen Fry Up - in his own bid to raise funds and Miss Ketchell is now hoping he will give her tattoo a TV blessing.

Miss Ketchell, from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, hopes that Fry will ask her on to his BBC quiz show QI when the series, which chooses its theme subjects alphabetically, comes around to the letter 'T'.
'I want to get in touch with QI so when they do their 't' show I can go on,' she said.
'I'm hoping if I tell them about my tattoo they will let me come on and show it to Stephen Fry.

'I just think he is such a wonderful person and when he did the Walkers crisps campaign for Comic Relief, I thought it was a brilliant way to do something.'

Miss Ketchell went to the Cock A Snook tattoo parlour in Heaton, Newcastle, to have the portrait inked on her right calf - and she is not ruling out portraits of some other heroes of comedy to accompany it.
'I had the idea to have him on my right side, which I'm building up to be my comedy side because everybody has a funny side,' she said. ;)

Tattooist Paul Johnson, who specialises in portraits, inked the image on Miss Ketchell on Friday, March 18.
'The tattooist had done lots of portraits before and they are his favourite thing to do,' she said.
'He has never done a Stephen Fry one though and I think I'm the only person in the world who has a Stephen Fry tattoo.
'I've been looking online and I haven't found anyone else yet.

'Everybody thinks I'm crazy but I couldn't be happier.
'It's like I have had a baby. I always wanted him and I suffered for four-and-a-half hours and he's finally here. :shock:
'It's totally worth it and I would do it again.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1HQDBc7gO
 
At four and a half hours for the tattoo, it'd cost most of that £250 in the first place.
 
Tattoo formula uses mathematics to forecast ageing of body art
Mathematical model uses the way dye moves over time within skin to predict how a tattoo will blur and fade
Emine Sinmaz guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 April 2011 19.38 BST

It may be small comfort if you wake up after a heavy night with a hazy memory and some unsuitable words inked in to your body, but it is now possible to predict what a piece of body artwork will look like in years or decades hence.
A mathematical model uses the way dye moves over time within skin to predict how a tattoo will blur and fade.

The tool may also be some comfort to the handful of celebrities sporting misspelled tattoos in foreign languages. Footballer John Carew can look forward to the day that his "my life, my menstruation" tattoo, which was supposed to read "my life, my rules" in French, will be illegible. Britney Spears, who sports a Chinese tattoo that was meant to say "mysterious", but instead reads "strange", may be keen to find out when hers will fade. 8)

Tattoos are created by puncturing the skin with a needle up to 3,000 times a minute and depositing a drop of insoluble ink into the dermis with each puncture. The indelible markings are not resistant to the effects of ageing, however, and over time ink disperses as the cells that contain it either divide or die and exit the body.

How quickly an image will degrade depends on factors including its size, location and exposure to the sun. Skin type, age and ink type will also influence how a tattoo disperses.

Ian Eames, a reader in fluid mechanics at University College London, who has published details of the model in Mathematics Today, said small details in a tattoo were lost first while thicker lines were less affected, and larger tattoos fared better in appearance than smaller ones. The details of complex patterns are lost after about 10 years.

Eames's model enables him to estimate the movement of ink particles. "The dye spreads in some sense like heat spreading along a metal bar. But the rate of spreading is very, very small and takes many years to spread a few millimetres," he said.

This may come as a surprise to the growing number of human canvasses in the UK. Tattoos have become more socially acceptable, with the likes of Samantha Cameron sporting a dolphin on her ankle, and a fifth of all British adults now have tattoos.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... d-body-art
 
Taxpayers fund jobseekers' tattoo removal
Benefits claimants will be allowed to use taxpayers’ money to pay to have tattoos removed, it has been revealed.
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent 11:00PM BST 09 May 2011

Jobcentre staff have been told that they are free to use public money to fund tattoo removal if the inking is preventing a jobseeker taking up employment.
At least one person has already benefited from the policy and been given money to fund laser removal treatment.

Darra Singh, the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, said that his staff are permitted to fund removal “in exceptional circumstances”.
Mr Singh said: “There is no automatic entitlement, but where an adviser deems the removal of tattoos as necessary to facilitate the take-up of a specific job offer and the cost represents good value for taxpayer’s money, an award could be made. I envisage this only being in exceptional circumstances.”

Mr Singh said that his organisation does not keep detailed records on how many times public money has been used to fund tattoo removal.
However, he said he was aware of a case in 2002 where a benefits claimant was “allocated financial support to have tattoos removed.”
The payment was made after a Jobcentre manager decided that a jobseeker should qualify to make use of “funds available to provide additional support to help customers overcome things standing directly in the way of securing employment”.

Mr Singh revealed the policy in a letter to David Ruffley, a Conservative MP.
Mr Ruffley said that recipients should be asked to contribute towards the costs of any removal treatment.
“Tattoos are very expensive to have done in the first place so I think it is completely reasonable from the taxpayer’s point of view to get individuals to help pay for the removal of unsightly tattoos,” he said. “It is spending like this does really raise the eyebrows of the average taxpayer.”

Once regarded as the preserve of sailors and criminals, tattoos have grown in popularity and are now seen as socially acceptable in some circles.
Several members of the House of Commons, for example, sport tattoos, as does Samantha Cameron, the wife of the Prime Minister.
Some surveys have suggested that as many as a quarter of the adult population of Britain now have some form of permanent tattoo.
The number of licensed tattoo parlours is said to have grown from barely 50 in the 1970s to around 1,000 today.

However, many employers still have reservations about people with prominent or extensive tattoos.
The British Army, for instance, rejects would-be recruits who have tattoos visible on the head and neck. Many other employers reject applicants with tattoos on their hands.

In recent years, a number of charities have been set up to help people remove tattoos that make it hard for them to get or keep jobs.
Skin Clinics, a private firm providing laser treatment to remove tattoos, last year claimed that around 25 per cent of people who have tattoos later regret the decision and consider removal.

Private treatment sessions can cost around £100, with large or stubborn tattoos commonly requiring at least 15 sessions.

Some reports suggest the National Health Service is now spending around £40 million on tattoo removal treatments.
According to the Department of Health, tattoo removal may be available on the National Health Service, subject to local primary care trust policies and if a doctor decides that an individual patient's health requires the treatment.

Since last year, a number of health trusts are understood to have stopped funding for “cosmetic” treatments including tattoo removals, in order to save money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... moval.html
 
Blimey, where in the vaults did they dredge that one up from?

Slow news day or something?

You watch - it'll be the bloke who married the goat next.
 
Auf Wiedersehen, tat! German football club bans its players from getting any more tattoos
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 4:26 PM on 12th July 2011

A top German football club has issued an edict banning its football players from getting tattoos.
Werder Bremen is not concerned about the aesthetics of David Beckham-style skin art - merely the medical risks.
It believes that the discomfort following tattooing - combined with the risks of infection - could hamper the performances of players on the pitch.
Last season Hamburg, a rival of Werder Bremen, sidelined 24-year-old striker Eljero Elia after one of his tattoos went septic.
At times, according to media reports, the pain was so bad he was even unable to wear his strip during training sessions.

Werder Bremen's goalkeeper Tim Wiese, midfielder Marko Arnautovic and defender Naldo all have considerable numbers of 'tats.'
Defender Naldo also has a lot of tattoos
They just won't be allowed to get any more from now on.

Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., an American doctor who has made an academic study of why people get tattoos, said; 'Tattoo-lovers are a proud lot - they have consciously taken the decision to tattoo their bodies and would like to proudly declare that they are what they are.
'They are ordinary people like you and me, except that they have a strong sense of identity they have no intention of hiding. They are not scared of public opinion and would love to let others know what they believe in.

'Tattoos are a mark of the 21st century, and it’s estimated that more than 25 percent of people under 30 are inking their skin. Personal expression, youthful impulsiveness, drunken mistake — the fact is that while it’s trendy, cool and even sexy, there are murky risks to one’s health.
'Good tattoos aren’t cheap and cheap tattoos aren’t good, so be sure the little butterfly you think looks hot on your hip will be what you want 50 years from now, if you can still find it. In other words, think before you ink.' 8)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1S1C6kALw
 
rynner2 said:
At times, according to media reports, the pain was so bad he was even unable to wear his strip during training sessions.
Click to expand...

Wuss. One of mine went septic. It's not pleasant but it's hardly agonising.
 
Don't forget though, this was man pain. :lol:
 
At four and a half hours for the tattoo, it'd cost most of that £250 in the first place.
Click to expand...

I live round the corner from this tattoo parlour. They did it for free. Makes sense really all the free publicity in the national press they have got off this.
oh and i don't know where you live but in Newcastle you can gt 8-9 hours of tattooing done for £250. There are a hell of a lot of tattoo shops here and competition is fierce.
 
It's around £50 an hour down here. Mind you, that's for the really good ones.
 
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