Tattoos may be all the rage, and with the study Draper Laboratories is doing, they may become good for health too. Heather Clark and her colleagues are working on a special tattoo ink that can change color depending on skin glucose levels. The nanotech ink can be used the same way as regular tattoo ink, only it has spheres that are 120nm across and work to detect glucose levels.

A “funny orangey” color means good sugar level, purple means low levels and yellow means excess. The sampling process repeats itself every few milliseconds, so people have a painless and quick way to monitor glucose levels. The way ahead is not all that easy though, as skin glucose level can lag behind the blood glucose levels by as much as 20 minutes, but considering the effect is much faster in some cases, the ink may prove viable. It will, however, take at least two years before this tattoo ink reaches the market.

Via: Discovery/Neatorama415710