{"id":922316,"date":"2026-10-09T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922316\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:12:11","slug":"scientists-develop-tattoos-you-can-turn-on-and-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922316\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists develop tattoos you can turn on and off"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tattoo you can turn on and off sounds like science<\/a> fiction, but a team of engineers has brought it into reality.<\/p>\n

A new study in Cell Press journal Matter and Light reveals the new inks could help people conceal their tattoos when they feel the need, such as for a job<\/a> interview.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Newly-designed tattoos can be turned on and off with the application of different kinds of light.\u00a0Matter and Light, Bruns et al<\/p>\n

\u201cTattooing is a very ancient technology<\/a> that remains mostly untapped as a platform for today\u2019s technologies,\u201d lead author Carson Bruns of the University of Colorado said.<\/p>\n

The new inks, known as PhotoTat, are made from dyes and a plexiglass-like material common in many medical<\/a> technologies on the market today, including dermal fillers. <\/p>\n

The research is a passion project for Bruns, who has a lot of his own tattoos, including a green lion on his arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love body art because of how personal it is,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To make the inks, Bruns and his colleagues start with a material called polymethyl methacrylate, or PMMA, which forms tiny spheres that look like they\u2019re made of glass. <\/p>\n

The team then inserts a range of colour-changing dyes into the spheres.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy mixing these primary colours, we can generate a full colour image,\u201d Bruns says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The tattoos last a few hours after being activated.\u00a0Matter and Light, Bruns et al<\/p>\n

Normally, these dyes are completely invisible to the human eye.<\/p>\n

But when put under an ultraviolet light on them, the authors say they change colour in a matter of seconds – turning a vibrant blue, magenta, or yellow.<\/p>\n

The colours fade over several hours, but you can also switch them off faster by exposing them to a bright LED light.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhotoTat is like a switch. You turn it on with UV light, but you can turn it off again when you go to grandma\u2019s house,\u201d Bruns said.<\/p>\n

The technology remains off the market, and Bruns said it\u2019s yet not determined whether the inks are safe for humans – though he has experimented on himself as the research continues.<\/p>\n

Beyond cosmetics, Bruns also said there might be practical applications for the technology, such as for people undergoing radiation therapy.<\/p>\n

Such patients often have to get small tattoos to guide radiation beams, which can be both physically and mentally scarring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not beautiful, and they become a permanent reminder of a traumatic experience,\u201d Bruns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith PhotoTat, we could turn an involuntary medical tattoo into something that\u2019s only visible to the doctor when you go in the clinic, and then it can be invisible the rest of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruns\u2019s own PhotoTat designed include black outline of fish scales on his leg, which he\u2019s filled in with PhotoTat inks and compares to \u201cmagical mermaid scales\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a stigma, in science and in many cultures, around body art,\u201d Bruns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to be pushing against that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tattoo you can turn on and off sounds like science fiction, but a team of engineers has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-922316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}