The LEGO Dimple Tattoo

How much do you love your LEGOS? Enough to get a tattoo of the divet marks in your finger? If you’re LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya, the answer is a no brainer.

You know, it’s actually pretty clever and cool. Who wants to head down to the tattoo shop with me…? Anyone?

Scientists now able to decipher hidden tattoos via Infrared. Dolphin/Unicorn love fest tattoo to haunt you for the rest of enternity

Tattoos. Gadget blog. What’s the point? Science. Read on. Criminals often use tattoos as branding for their chosen gang. Tattoos and criminals can also be used as a “slate” or fleshy paper to send messages to other individual and gangs via tatooed on messages. Previously, criminals who were being targeted by law enforcement because evidence linked to a tattoo simply got a new tattoo covering up or modifying the old one so that the police had no way of regaining said evidence. Luckily science has come through again.

A new method that ironically uses old technology — infrared — is being adapted to to the world of tattoos by allowing law enforcement and the guy running the machine to see a criminals tattoo and any alterations. Alterations such as cover up with a new tattoo, laser removal, or even surgery are no match for the new uncovering method being developed. Supposedly, it’s so good that no matter how much alterations the criminal has tried to attempt, the technology will reach back in time and show the original tattoo and message as it was. Cool stuff in deed.

The focus so far has been marketed as a law enforcement tool to help catch crafty criminals. But criminal or not, I’m sure many have tried to in some way or another alter a stupid tattoo they got when they were young, stupid, and/or drunk. Now you can feel assured (or not) that it is never truly “gone”. Tattoos such as the Dolphin/Unicorn love fest above will eat away at your soul for the rest of eternity. Awesome.

The tactic sounds pretty similar to technologies used in the art world. Often when trying to determine if a painting is fake or not, various frequencies and waves will get beamed at a painting to determine if it is real, if there’s another crap painting underneath, or for whatever other reasons you’d want to know a paintings true past. It’s nice to see technology recycled and expanded upon isn’t it.

Soon, living the life of a criminal will be a bit harder…*Que “Another One Bites the Dust…*

Gizmodo > Tech Radar

[Image Source

LED Tattoos the way of the future?

Tattoos haven’t changed much over the decades. It’s still essentially the same basic concept: A needle moving in and our of your skin with some sort of ink or dye on the tip. Other forms of body modifications such as piercings and implanting metallic objects ahve added a twist to the whole process, but a “tattoo” is still the same. Rebels and body artists of tomorrow will find LED tattoos the next big craze.

The idea may seem crazy at first, but it’s really not that complex. Simple silicon transistors measuring roughly 1 millimeter long and 250 nanometers wide are placed closely together on a thin layer of dissolving silk. The silk dissolves in the body leaving the circuits behind. Irritation is non-existent as the circuits are so tiny that they are completely unnoticeable to the “wearer”.

It’s pretty cool if you ask me. A little less permanent than ink and highly geeky. Those worried about the procedure should know that silk has been used for years in the medical field for various uses because of it’s ability to be broken down by the body with no harmful byproducts of effects. If it’s good enough to conform to the ultra strict rules in medicine then it’s good enough for the rest of us.

So what will you rock in LED fashion under your skin? The Mario Mushroom? Circuit board outline? Logo of your favorite tech company? Skies the limit…

Ubergizmo > Gizmag

Followup: The reason for the HTC Tattoo’s resistive screen….?

Too small. Excuse me? If you were wondering why HTC went with a resistive screen on the HTC Tattoo instead of the much more finger friendly capacitive screen, try to push the theories of cost from your minds (we all know it) and fixate on HTC’s official response via Twitter which simply stated that the screen is too small. At smaller sizes capacitive screens will register more miss clicks. Really? Too small at 2.8″? I’m sure the 0.2-0.4 inches of difference doesn’t really make that much of a difference. Hey, cynicism aside, I’m sure HTC has done their homework…*hope*. So the horse’s mouth has spoken…are you convinced?

Source: Phandroid, Android Central

Tech Tattoo: Good idea or addiction gone bad?

Like many hobbies, addictions can grow and develop from a small crush to a wide following consuming the minds and actions of wide swaths of people. Techie’s in particular can grow quite attached to gadgets, hardware, software, a tech company, or even characters in techie based products such as video game characters. While at the time, a certain tattoo may seem like a great way to show off your geekiness. However, after the ink settles and you step back look at what you’ve done, one can see the utter chaos that some of bestowed upon their bodies. Come inside for some pictures of the more peculiar and odd tattoos that have graced techies from far and wide that ultimately leave us scratching our heads and asking the question: “What were you thinking?“.