High-tech tattoo ink in tiny capsules: They're DYE-no-mite!

William Atkins
Thursday, 26 July 2007 19:14

Science - Health

A new technique, first used to deliver drugs into the body in a controlled manner, has been applied to tattooing. Tattoo ink is placed inside microcapsules to make safer, sturdy, and easily removal tattoos.

Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) medical science and engineering researcher Edith Mathiowitz has developed a process by which genes, proteins, hormones, and medicines are coated in polymers for a controlled delivery into the body at specifically targeted locations.

Her microencapsulation process can be used to make many products within medicine (such as aspirin) and in other fields of endeavor. For instance, it can be used as a controlled way to deliver fertilizer to plants.

However, one of its more recent applications is with tattoos. Traditional tattooing ink is filled with heavy metals and other toxins.

However, Mathiowitz and her team of researchers have developed microencapsulated beads (that is, suspended particles in a biodegradable coating) filled with dyes. The beads—which are made of polymethylmethacrylate (a synthetic material often  used to make surgical glue and parts for artificial joints)—are then mixed with a solution. The result is a twenty-first century, high-tech version of tattoo dyes. Mathiowitz calls her new tattooing dyes: Freedom-2 tattoo inks.

According to the New York company Freedom-2. LLC website (http://www.freedom2ink.com/):

“The innovation of a high quality, more easily removable and safe ink in the creation of body art is at the heart of Freedom-2. Freedom-2 honors and respects the tradition of tattooing and the importance of body art in human culture. Our mission is to engineer high quality, permanent inks that meet the demanding standards of today's professional tattoo artists and enable the fullest forms of self-expression by body art wearers.”

“Freedom-2 inks are designed to be permanent and durable. However, we also recognize that life circumstances change and your desire for new body art may cause you to want to remove all or a part of an existing tattoo. Freedom-2 inks are engineered, independent of color, for efficient and effective laser therapy removal leaving your skin clear and ready for new body art.”

Rather than numerous laser treatments, which can cost thousands of dollars, to remove traditional inks, the Freedom-2 inks can be removed with one laser treatment, at an estimated cost of less than one thousand dollars. The laser beam breaks down the polymer beads and the human body naturally absorbs the released dye.

This technology may be a boom to the tattooing industry. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, about one out of four U.S. adults have at least one tattoo. However, about 17% of these people are considering removing their tattoo(s). Doctors who perform tattoo removal procedures, say the percentage could be as high as 50%.

Additional information about the Freedom-2 process is found at the December 24, 2006 article in the San Francisco Chronicle ”New ink promises easy tattoo removal: Pigment could make it a cinch for those who change mind”.