Tattooed Beat Messiah

Hi,

As an English bloke tattoos are part of my culture and a permanent part of my wardrobe. They are a way of self expression in the UK and many other countries that just never dies out (no pun intended).

The science and evolution of tattoos never stops either. Not just in the art design of the pieces but also in the way the pieces are applied and augmented.

One the right you can see a pretty wild augmentation. The owner of this leg tattoo had small silicone inserts placed under their skin to get that all important busty effect.

All went well until the implants started leaking and causing some major health issues. But that's another story.

There have also been recent moves to widen the appeal of tattoos so that anyone can be cool.

New technology means that the same approach used to give a busty effect above can also be used to provide braille tattoos.

An example can be seen on the right. Entire outline pictures and textures can be produced with this technique, not just the letters of the braille alphabet.

Plans are being made for cyber aware tattoos, which are something right out of popular science fiction. These tattoos would identify the owner and act as a secure method of identification

Of course tattooing and modern technology have a long and not so illustrious history.

The IBM punched card system used to manage the workload and population of German concentration camps allocated inmates unique numbers as well.

No prizes for guessing where these numbers ended up on the inmates.

In a way all tattoos act as identifiers for the people who wear them. I know it would be very easy to identify me from my ink-work even if I had been in a horrific accident.

So maybe the act of individuality that is wearing a tattoo goes too far. Wearing tattoos makes you 100% unique and ruins any chance you have at being anonymous in the modern world.

NP Out

P.S. 10 cool points for anyone who can name the lead singer and band related to the title of this post