Asking your parents or finding some positive reason behind getting a tattoo has finally come to save your life… literally. Draper Laboratories of Massachusetts is developing a tattoo ink which changes color based on your glucose levels within your skin which can eliminate the use of painful blood glucose test for diabetics.
“It doesn’t have to be a large, over-the-shoulder kind of tattoo,” said Heather Clark, a scientist at Draper. “It would only have to be a few millimeters in size and wouldn’t have to go as deep as a normal tattoo.”
The nano ink particles are tiny, squishy spheres about 120 nanometers across. Inside the sphere are three parts: the glucose detecting molecule, a color-changing dye, and another molecule that mimics glucose. When the particles are dissolved in water they look like food coloring, says Clark.
The three parts continuously move around the inside the hydrophobic orb. When they approach the surface, the glucose detecting molecule either grabs a molecule of glucose or the mimicking molecule.
“If the molecules mostly latch onto glucose, the ink appears yellow. If glucose levels are low, the molecule latches onto the glucose mimic, turning the ink purple. A healthy level of glucose has a ‘funny orangey,’ color,” according to Clark. The sampling process repeats itself every few milliseconds.
Clark estimates that it will be at least two years before the necessary human testing is complete to bring the ink to the market.
Via Discovery News
Great post i really like it
why i cant subscribe to your feed ? i keep getting an error?
thanks
who has this ink for diabetics
I would LOVE to get this ink in my next tattoo…. where can i go to get it and what is the cost ? more or less than an average tattoo cost ?
please can you tell me when this tattoo is cuming out it would help me a lot with my diabetes
thanks robert riley
Question
I want to have a tattoo done and I was wondering whether having diabetes would affect my ability to have a tattoo.
Is there any medical reason why I shouldn’t have one done?
Answer
I always think of diabetes as a condition that occurs in perfectly normal people who lead a full active life; the only difference is that they must pay greater attention to looking after themselves than the rest of us.
Of course, it is essential to keep fit and slim, and to keep both blood pressure and blood glucose levels close to the ideals recommended by Diabetes UK to avoid the complications of the disease.
If you are fit, and your control is good, then your risks from having a tattoo are the same as for anyone else. These are the risks of infection at the site if the injections, the pain of the procedure, and the problems associated with removal of the tattoo if you get fed up with it; they are permanent and much harder to remove than to have done.
Historically, there has been a danger of acquiring hepatitis, and other blood-borne illnesses from the use of needles that have been used on other individuals. But, this should not happen in the UK where tattooists are keenly aware of the problem.
With current advances in stem cell research, it won’t be long before we can find a permanent cure for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. |
I’m sure some freaks will be overjoyed they can now marry their love of tattoos with their love of playing doctor. Nobody tell the medical fetish people, okay?
I think this would be a good idea, im a diabetic and not having to check my glucose by finger pricks would be awesome, however how could it really tell the true reading? like number wise.
I am on a insulin pump. I have 10 tattoos. being diebetic dont change anything but making sure YOU take care of the area. I am eager to the release of more information
how much would something like this cost? im type one diabetic and im very interested in this..