'Invisible ink' keeps tattoos hidden until they're under certain light
Once the hallmark of bikers, sailors, and general riff-raff, tattoos have become far more mainstream, decorating the bodies of everyone from teachers to lawyers to world-class surgeons.
Nonetheless, being a 24-7 art gallery may not be to everybody’s taste. But new inks could add a degree of transience to tattoos, making them more like summer fashion than permanent features.
Called PhotoTat, the inks can be switched between almost invisible and brightly coloured states using different kinds of light. In the future, that could mean hiding a tattoo at a business meeting, revealing it later, or even rewriting what's on your skin.
A team of researchers led by University of Colorado Boulder chemist Carson Bruns developed three light-sensitive dyes that are encapsulated in tiny particles of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), a transparent plastic better known as plexiglass.
Under ordinary visible light, the dyes are almost invisible. Shine 365-nanometre ultraviolet light on them,...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to newatlas.com. To see the full text click HERE
