Neat concept, but the density of needles seems quite low for tattoing, and that is likely why the linework of the tattoos in those pictures is so blurry. While getting tattooed, the needle will puncture skin and deposit ink typically 1500+ times per minute. The most specific that this article gets is saying the patches have "hundreds" of needles. At the high end (999 needles in a patch) this means that this patch has substantially lower resolution than a single minute of being tattooed.
So, it's a neat gimmick, but it'll need a lot of work to be much more than that. It'd be neat for some small pieces to fill space I guess.
And a bit of a tangent, but I also have a pretty strong needle aversion, and I have not found that getting tattooed "feels" like there are any needles involved in the process. I know logically that it is a needle, but subjective process (the pain and visuals) really bears no resemblance to a needle.
This is neat for small flash pieces. I’m not sure I want to imagine the process for getting a half sleeve of one’s own design applied this way, fifteen millimeter diameter at a time.
I think that’s the direction the company will take if they are financially successful with their early products. This might actually be a really good technology to license out instead of trying to build a market alone.
Unless they’re also coming out with painless permanent tattoo removal as well, this seems like one of those things where removing the friction isn’t actually a good thing. Door knobs and warning signs on one way doors are a design feature, not a bug.
The friction exists vastly unevenly. Some people are so scared of needles that they couldn't possibly get a tattoo recreationally, some people don't give af and get them with no thought at all.
The current scheme is not optimally applying friction where it belongs so there's a lot of room for improvement.
Are tattoos normally considered painful? I got my first one recently (a small shoulder tattoo) and it didn't hurt really, more like a cat's tongue rasping against the skin. I have heard my artist has a light touch, and it wasn't a very sensitive area.
In my experience, as others have said, the shoulder is probably the least painful area to get tattooed, to the point where I also wouldn't call it painful. I'm halfway through one right now which runs from my chest/armpit over my shoulder and upper arm, and onto my back, and the shoulder was the only real reprieve. The armpit, chest, arm, and back (in that order) were certainly painful to varying degrees, even if they were tolerable.
I also got one not long ago, a round dial about 3 inches across, on my quads a few inches above my knee that was exceedingly painful, an area where the pain charts seem to suggest is not usually painful.
The most painful for me is when when the outline is done and they go back to do the shading/texturing and the skin is already angry. That's a good time to stop if the tattoo is sufficiently large.
1. The location of tattoo, some regions of skin are VERY sensitive.
2. The skill of the tattooer. How deep do they go, how fast do they pull, etc...
3. The size of the lines and shading A fine line tattoo feels very different that a block shaded piece. (One needle vs up to 7)
4. The style of the tattoo. Black and gray realism tattoos require the artist to go over an area many times. Going over an already inflamed piece of skin feels way worse than fresh skin.
I think their reputation is exaggerated compared to how painful they actually are, but yes, they have a reputation for being painful, and they can indeed be quite painful. You picked one of the easier places for it.
The worst I've experienced is on the elbow; it felt like my entire skeleton and nervous system were being jackhammered.
The shoulder is a very easy place to be tattooed, which is why that area gets recommended for first-timers. Places with less flesh and more bone are much worse; I have tats on the tops of my feet, and those were agonizing.
Yes and no, the skin connects to the spinal nerve in regions known as dermatomes, there being 31 spinal nerves and 30 dermatomes, with left and right sides. Some nasty rashes get confined on a dermatome basis, to not cross the left-right axis, this being because the nerve roots are the problem, rather than the skin, per se.
Hence, you have a pain map of sorts, based on things such as the dermatomes. Utility of the skin also comes to mind, the hands, although 'tough' have a lot of nerves and, allegedly, a job stopper hand tattoo will be extremely painful. Same with the chest, which is 'underbelly' and not 'defended', whereas your shoulder will not have the same 'evolutionary' choices.
Coupled with that is the evolving technology, in the olden days, tattoo machines looked like they were held together with rubber bands, and people swore by these contraptions. Nowadays you have something more like a glorified electric toothbrush, with most artists just preferring the modern tools, that also hurt less. Aftercare has improved too.
Different artists will also impose a different level of pain. Pain also is 'in the eye of the beholder', for your first rodeo you probably had a certain amount of adrenaline going round, for the 'other shoulder' you won't have this 'natural pain killer' to quite the same abundance, so it might hurt more than you expect, rather than less.
Nonetheless, dermatomes, you need to go down that rabbit hole! I never knew of the things until recently.
Interesting. I have noticed there are a few spots in my body, where I feel sensation far from the origin (for example, my finger twinging slightly when I pee). I always wondered about the nerve mappings in that case.
Are you suggesting that tattoos are uglifying the world or that an innovation like this device is? I am no defender of capitalism but I don't see the connection.
Neat concept, but the density of needles seems quite low for tattoing, and that is likely why the linework of the tattoos in those pictures is so blurry. While getting tattooed, the needle will puncture skin and deposit ink typically 1500+ times per minute. The most specific that this article gets is saying the patches have "hundreds" of needles. At the high end (999 needles in a patch) this means that this patch has substantially lower resolution than a single minute of being tattooed.
So, it's a neat gimmick, but it'll need a lot of work to be much more than that. It'd be neat for some small pieces to fill space I guess.
And a bit of a tangent, but I also have a pretty strong needle aversion, and I have not found that getting tattooed "feels" like there are any needles involved in the process. I know logically that it is a needle, but subjective process (the pain and visuals) really bears no resemblance to a needle.
Kind of scary, imagine someone putting an ad in that and placing it on random people without them noticing.
Obviously doesn’t really make sense because if it’s an ad you also know who did it but somehow that’s the first thing that came to mind for me.
What I imagine is drunk youngsters tattooing a dick on the forehead of their passed out friend as a prank.
This is neat for small flash pieces. I’m not sure I want to imagine the process for getting a half sleeve of one’s own design applied this way, fifteen millimeter diameter at a time.
I don't see why in the future this couldn't be applied to a semi-flexible backing. Probably will be fragile and hard to make but seems possible.
I think that’s the direction the company will take if they are financially successful with their early products. This might actually be a really good technology to license out instead of trying to build a market alone.
Unless they’re also coming out with painless permanent tattoo removal as well, this seems like one of those things where removing the friction isn’t actually a good thing. Door knobs and warning signs on one way doors are a design feature, not a bug.
The friction exists vastly unevenly. Some people are so scared of needles that they couldn't possibly get a tattoo recreationally, some people don't give af and get them with no thought at all.
The current scheme is not optimally applying friction where it belongs so there's a lot of room for improvement.
Are tattoos normally considered painful? I got my first one recently (a small shoulder tattoo) and it didn't hurt really, more like a cat's tongue rasping against the skin. I have heard my artist has a light touch, and it wasn't a very sensitive area.
In my experience, as others have said, the shoulder is probably the least painful area to get tattooed, to the point where I also wouldn't call it painful. I'm halfway through one right now which runs from my chest/armpit over my shoulder and upper arm, and onto my back, and the shoulder was the only real reprieve. The armpit, chest, arm, and back (in that order) were certainly painful to varying degrees, even if they were tolerable.
I also got one not long ago, a round dial about 3 inches across, on my quads a few inches above my knee that was exceedingly painful, an area where the pain charts seem to suggest is not usually painful.
The most painful for me is when when the outline is done and they go back to do the shading/texturing and the skin is already angry. That's a good time to stop if the tattoo is sufficiently large.
It depends on a few factors.
1. The location of tattoo, some regions of skin are VERY sensitive.
2. The skill of the tattooer. How deep do they go, how fast do they pull, etc...
3. The size of the lines and shading A fine line tattoo feels very different that a block shaded piece. (One needle vs up to 7)
4. The style of the tattoo. Black and gray realism tattoos require the artist to go over an area many times. Going over an already inflamed piece of skin feels way worse than fresh skin.
I think their reputation is exaggerated compared to how painful they actually are, but yes, they have a reputation for being painful, and they can indeed be quite painful. You picked one of the easier places for it.
The worst I've experienced is on the elbow; it felt like my entire skeleton and nervous system were being jackhammered.
Approximate tattoo pain by location on body: https://www.healthline.com/health/body-modification/pain-tat...
A butt tattoo is painful? That seems very surprising.
The shoulder is a very easy place to be tattooed, which is why that area gets recommended for first-timers. Places with less flesh and more bone are much worse; I have tats on the tops of my feet, and those were agonizing.
Just thinking about that makes me a bit queasy.
Yes and no, the skin connects to the spinal nerve in regions known as dermatomes, there being 31 spinal nerves and 30 dermatomes, with left and right sides. Some nasty rashes get confined on a dermatome basis, to not cross the left-right axis, this being because the nerve roots are the problem, rather than the skin, per se.
Hence, you have a pain map of sorts, based on things such as the dermatomes. Utility of the skin also comes to mind, the hands, although 'tough' have a lot of nerves and, allegedly, a job stopper hand tattoo will be extremely painful. Same with the chest, which is 'underbelly' and not 'defended', whereas your shoulder will not have the same 'evolutionary' choices.
Coupled with that is the evolving technology, in the olden days, tattoo machines looked like they were held together with rubber bands, and people swore by these contraptions. Nowadays you have something more like a glorified electric toothbrush, with most artists just preferring the modern tools, that also hurt less. Aftercare has improved too.
Different artists will also impose a different level of pain. Pain also is 'in the eye of the beholder', for your first rodeo you probably had a certain amount of adrenaline going round, for the 'other shoulder' you won't have this 'natural pain killer' to quite the same abundance, so it might hurt more than you expect, rather than less.
Nonetheless, dermatomes, you need to go down that rabbit hole! I never knew of the things until recently.
Interesting. I have noticed there are a few spots in my body, where I feel sensation far from the origin (for example, my finger twinging slightly when I pee). I always wondered about the nerve mappings in that case.
A perfect technology to mark cattle with QR codes on the forehead.
I want the last ones. If not how am I going to get into Costco
Design you own graphics or select from our exclusive collection:
https://mocagh.org/broderbund/printshop-refcard.pdf
Was this meant seriously? I literally used those graphics 40 years ago (it's from a wonderful program called PrintShop (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41087798)
Seems perfect for barcodes...
Capitalism uglifying the world that tiny bit more, so long as we can squeeze some more $$$ out of poor impressionable people...
Are you suggesting that tattoos are uglifying the world or that an innovation like this device is? I am no defender of capitalism but I don't see the connection.
I want one with the OpenAI logo!
"Other people like something that I don't like! Oh no!"