South Koreans may soon be able to carry a device inside their own bodies in the form of a bespoke tattoo that automatically alerts them to potential health problems, if a science team’s project bears fruit.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in the city of Daejeon southwest of Seoul have developed an electronic tattoo ink made of liquid metal and carbon nanotubes that functions as a bioelectrode. Hooked up to an electrocardiogram device or other biosensor, it can send a readout of a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs such glucose and lactate to a monitor.“In the future, what we hope to do is connect a wireless chip integrated with this ink, so that we can communicate, or we can send signal back and forth between our body to an external device,” said project leader Steve Park, a materials science and engineering professor.
“When it is applied to the skin, even with rubbing the tattoo doesn’t come off, which is not possible with just liquid metal,” Park said. Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines.
From a historical perspective … I am not so sure about a medical tattoo