LogicInk ‘Tattoos’ for Body and Environmental Monitoring

Most so-called smart tattoos are electronics stuck to one’s skin, enabling simple expressions or interactions. But what if these devices could forgo electronics altogether, using their own chemistry to monitor different environmental and individual statistics?

That’s the idea behind LogicInk, which is currently fully funded on Kickstarter with 25 days left to go. The UV tattoos will be ready to ship in November, and can be customized just for you at a much higher pledge level; however, the basic UV tattoos provide useful feedback, as overexposure can lead to skin cancer and premature aging. Since the indicators are applied directly to your skin, they can be covered with sunblock to take that into account, letting you know when you should probably stay in the shade.

As interesting as that is on its own, Carlos Olguin and his team’s vision for these sensors goes much further, including indicators for pollution, temperature, alcohol consumption, and more. One could even see a day when this type of marker could be customized on-demand, allowing you to decorate your skin as you wish, along with the exact sensors that you’ll need for the day. While not electronic by nature, LogicInk does have app in development that can be used to scan these markers, providing a way to track historical data.