18 Jul This Tattoo Changes Color Based on Your Biology

As a form of emotional and artistic expression, tattoos have received little attention from scientific fields, until now. While most people use tattoos as a way to physically render something that’s meaningful to them, a new study is showing that tattoos may have an unsuspected function that stretches beyond creative expression and into the world of medicine.

Take that, mom. Tattoos do have a purpose!

Researchers at MIT Media Lab and Harvard Medical School have joined up to develop a “biosensing” tattoo ink that could change color based on alterations in one’s biology. The project is called DermalAbyss, and head researcher Katia Vega says that the ink can turn the skin into an “interactive display” from which medical information can monitored in real time.

The “biosensing” ink can thus far detect changes in three different bodily functions: glucose levels, sodium levels, and pH balance. Glucose levels are detected as the tattoo ink changes from blue (low blood sugar) to brown (high blood sugar). Sodium levels are detected under a UV light, with a green fluorescent color indicating how much water (or salt) is in the body. Changes in pH balance are indicated by shifts from pink to purple ink.

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