Novel Painless Tattoos That can be Self-Administered

Highlights:

Sometimes giant needles are used to repeatedly puncture the skin while making tattoos
New microneedles, smaller than a grain of sand and fabricated from tattoo ink encased in a dissolvable matrix, can be a low-cost and painless way to self-administer tattoos

Imagine getting tattooed by a skin patch holding microscopic needles rather than spending hours in a tattoo chair suffering painful puncture. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created tattoos that are inexpensive and painless. There is no bleeding involved too. The tattoos can be self-applied. They have a variety of uses, including tracking neutered animals, medical warnings, cosmetics and tracking.

“We’ve miniaturized the needle so that it’s painless, but still effectively deposits tattoo ink in the skin. 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,” said Mark Prausnitz, principal investigator on the paper.

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‘A newly developed low-cost, painless and bloodless tattoos that can be self-administered have applications from medical alerts, tracking neutered animals to cosmetics.’

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In the medical field, tattoos can conceal scars, guide repeated cancer radiation treatments or replace nipples following breast surgery. Tattoos can send medical alerts for diabetes, epilepsy or allergies.

Microneedle-based cosmetic treatments are already available on the market. They are mainly used for anti-aging purposes, but microneedle technology for tattoos is novel. To administer medications and vaccinations to the skin painlessly without the use of hypodermic needles, Prausnitz, an expert in this field, has spent years researching microneedle patches.

“We saw this as an opportunity to leverage our work on microneedle technology to make tattoos more accessible. While some people are willing to accept the pain and time required for a tattoo, we thought others might prefer a tattoo that is pressed onto the skin and does not hurt,” said Prausnitz.

Harmful Effects of Tattoos
Tattoos can cause problems ranging from mild allergies to the deadly AIDS. Therefore take precautions during tattooing and care of the tattoo thereafter, or better avoid it altogether.

Is how Tattooing done changing?

It takes a lot of time and hurts when needles pierce the skin to create a tattoo. A team from Georgia Tech has developed microneedles that are the size of a sand grain. They have tattoo ink encapsulated in a matrix that dissolves.

“Because the microneedles are made of tattoo ink, they deposit the ink in the skin very efficiently,” said Li, the lead author of the study.

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In this method, the microneedles can only be driven into the skin once before dissolving, leaving the ink in place for a few minutes while the skin is still intact and bleeding-free.

Tattooing Method

Microneedle patch tattoos imprint a design that can include letters, numbers, symbols, and images even though most microneedle patches for pharmaceuticals or cosmetics have dozens or hundreds of tiny needles organised in a square or circle. Each microneedle functions as a pixel to generate a tattoo image in any shape or pattern by being arranged in a certain pattern.

Tattoo Removal Methods
Tattoo removal methods could include both laser and non-laser ones. Picoseconds, R20, CO2 are popular laser methods. Tattoo removal may cause skin bruising, infections.

The researchers begin with a mould that has microneedles in an image-forming pattern. They apply a patch backing for easy handling and fill the tattoo ink-filled microneedles in the mould. The microneedles in the resulting patch disintegrate and release the tattoo ink when placed on the skin for a short period of time. The microneedles can accommodate tattoo inks of different colours, including black-light ink, which can be viewed under an ultraviolet light source.

After years of studying microneedles for vaccine distribution, Prausnitz's lab concluded that they can be used for tattoos. Prausnitz's team began developing tattoos to identify spayed and neutered pets with assistance from the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs, but soon realised the technique could be useful for people as well.

In addition, privacy was considered when designing the tattoos. The tattoo will only appear on the patch when exposed to UV light or greater temperatures, thanks to the researchers’ creation of patches that are sensitive to environmental changes like light or temperature. Patients benefit from privacy and can only reveal the tattoo when they want to.

According to the study, the tattoos are expected to be permanent and might stay for at least a year, making them attractive cosmetic possibilities for those who desire an appealing tattoo without the discomfort or risk of infection with conventional tattoos. Alternately, temporary tattoo ink might be injected onto microneedles to address immediate needs in medicine and cosmetics.

Animal skin can also be marked using microneedle patch tattoos to encode data. Animals can be marked with a painless and undetectable tattoo to signify their sterilisation status rather than having their ears clipped or having ear tags affixed.

“The goal isn’t to replace all tattoos, which are often works of beauty created by tattoo artists,” Prausnitz said. “Our goal is to create new opportunities for patients, pets and people who want a painless tattoo that can be easily administered.”

Source-Medindia