Could Your Doctor be Prescribing a Tattoo in the Future?
Gabi Moore | May 12, 2010 | Comments 0
There may be a day soon when you could walk away from a doctor’s appointment with a prescription for a tattoo. Scientists are developing medical tattoos that could detect glucose levels and protect people with 
implanted medical devices like pacemakers. The tattoo could provide the same information as pricking a finger for people with diabetes, through nanosensors that would change colors when glucose levels were too high or too low. The tattoo wouldn’t be a tattoo in the traditional sense, it would dye a patient’s skin for about a week a yellow-orange color, which would get lighter or darker if glucose levels changed and could be detected through a special handheld camera.
The hope is, that a few years down the road, the tattoo could detect exact glucose levels, and that the camera detector could be installed as an application on patient’s cell phones. Scientists say it would encourage people with diabetes who might not check their glucose levels as often as they should to monitor their levels, and it’s less painful than pricking themselves every day.
Another kind of medical tattoo in development could be invisible, read by UV light to provide access to implanted medical devices with wireless protocols that can be hacked. Only someone with the password to the tattoo could alter the settings of the device. In an emergency medical situation physicians could locate the tattoo by a scar on the person’s body, as medical implants would leave a scar, whether or not the tattoo was invisible.
An actual tattoo diagnosis might be a few years away, but the tests and ideas for these tattoos are promising medical breakthroughs.
Filed Under: Awareness
About the Author: Gabi Moore is a Michigan State University journalism student. She's still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, but she harbors a passion for telling moving and meaningful stories, and appreciates the power of storytelling to influence the world. An animal lover since she can remember, she volunteers at her local animal shelter and is involved with Michigan's Children, pushing for legislative support and funding for children's programs across the state.
