Nokia has taken out a U.S. patent on technology used to create special tattoos that can pick up phone signals and send a “perceivable impulse” to your skin via magnetic waves from the ink, which contains iron.
According to the patent, the tattoos could even allow you to customize sensations as if they were ring tones (a tickle if it’s your sweetie, a pinch if it’s your ex?).
The patent also includes a temporary, stick-on tattoo option for those who aren’t too sure about the idea.
That would include Megan Hoogland, a nationally known tattoo artist who runs Mecca Tattoo in Mankato, Minn.
“Most inks have a bit of metal in them anyway, to get the colour, so it might not be dangerous,” she said. “But it seems a little too Big Brother-ish for me. We keep falling for this kind of thing, with Facebook, Google maps and cameras everywhere.” The biggest downside of all? “You can’t turn off a tattoo.”
(Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 9, 2012 D1)
