Tattoo Biosensor for Health Monitoring

Wearable devices available today offer a wide range of data, including heart rate, calorie expenditure, and exercise tracking, along with health apps that aid in disease prevention. For instance, the Cardiogram app on the iWatch continuously monitors heart rate, providing early warnings of irregularities to prevent heart diseases and streamline medical consultations. While wearables offer extensive functions, they remain external to the body. During my research, I stumbled upon a fascinating study exploring skin-embedded tattoos that change color to indicate blood sugar levels, offering a unique approach to health monitoring.

New Study of Tattoo Biosensor

This is a study published in 2019 by German scientist Dr. Ali Yetisen and other collaborating scholars, titled “Skin Tattoo Biosensor for Colorimetric Metabolite Detection.” Put simply, when blood pH or other health indicators change, the pigmented skin area (i.e., the tattooed area) will change color. Described in detail in the magazine Angewandte Chemie, this tattoo does not use tattoo ink but a colorimetric analysis formula. We know that tattooing releases “tattoo ink” into the underlying dermis, where the pigment permanently stains the skin.

How Tattoo Biosensor Works

Dr. Ali Yetisen believes this technology could help place biosensor formulations in locations within the body where they can directly record changes in metabolic substances without any spatial distance or time delay, perhaps over long periods of time. The researchers identified and tuned three colorimetric biosensors that produce color changes when encountering changes in biomarkers, such as pH.

The first biosensor was used to sense pH indicators, composed of methyl red, bromomethyl blue, and phenolphthalein. When injected into a piece of pig skin, its color changes with the skin’s pH value from 5 to 9, transitioning from yellow to blue. The other two biosensors detect glucose and albumin levels. The glucose sensor causes structural changes in organic pigments, resulting in color shifts from yellow to dark green according to changes in glucose concentration. The albumin sensor relies on a yellow dye that turns green when bound to albumin.

With these biosensors, people can detect diabetic dysfunction in advance and prevent potential liver or kidney failure by observing tattoo color changes. Scientists applied several sensors to pig skin, and as pH, glucose, or albumin levels changed, the tattooed area’s color adjusted accordingly, with these shifts being further interpretable through a smartphone app.

Quick Thought About Tattoo Biosensor

This biotechnology endeavor represents a valuable step towards enabling us to monitor our health in a simpler, more cost-effective, and visually intuitive manner. It transforms tattoos into not only expressions of faith or personal style but also into practical health tools. According to the researchers, this technology’s scope could be extended to monitor electrolyte and pathogen levels or a patient’s hydration status. The future development of such technology is eagerly anticipated, as biosensors may prove more attainable in the short term compared to Musk’s Neuralink.

Extended Links & References

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201904416

[2] https://www.ee.cit.tum.de/fileadmin/w00cfk/mst/Studentische_Arbeiten/Adver-18-11-2019_Yetisen_6.pdf

[3] https://boingboing.net/2019/07/22/color-changing-tattoo-shows-bl.html

[4] https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-dermal-tattoo-sensors-blood-ph.amp?__twitter_impression=true