Take Your Tattoo Digital By Getting One That's Only Viewable by Smartphone

Digital art meets human flesh.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com
When New York artist Anthony Antonellis wanted a new tattoo, he turned the creativity up a notch by deciding to ditch the ink and go high tech instead. 
 
By placing a RFID chip in his hand (that stores 1 KB of information), Antonellis created a digital tattoo that is only visible when looked at through a smartphone. Antonellis had a body modification specialist make a small cut in the meaty part of the back of his hand, and slip the chip between the space of his thumb and index finger. The chip is kept in a small glass capsule that is about the size of a grain of rice, and when someone points their smartphone toward it, an on-screen image pops up. Not just any image, but a GIF:
 
 
Yeah, it's not anything that will blow ink-based tattoos out of the water, but the cool thing is that RFID chips are like floppy disks, in that you can switch out the files any time you want, whenever you want, as long as it's not over the storage size. Antonellis can change the image by placing his phone over the chip and swapping the file—and other people can grab that file, too. So, this tiny GIF will get far more intricate as the tech advances.
 
Check out the video above to see how the process went down.
 
[via Wired]

Latest in Pop Culture