Palm OS Powered Tattooing Robot Debuts in Vienna

Makarand writes "Ananova has an article on the world's first tattooing robot. An Austrian electrician, after being left with some permanent reminders of his tattooing robot project, has unveiled his creation at a hi-tech fair in Vienna. He said that he had to test it on himself to get the robot do the right thing and has not recieved any complaints from volunteers who got a tattoo for free at the trade fair."

Comments

Robot

[Veteran]

The the only movie I can remember with a robot tattooing someone is "Starship Trooper" - any other examples?

I've got 19 'Tats

[The Mutant]

And I don't see much of a future for this.

I mean its a cool piece of work (I'm an AIBO owner and love stuff like this) but in the end Tattooing is more art than science, and I'm not sure the Robot can sub for the Artist, except in a purely mechanical way.

Where the Robot might be useful is covering in large areas of skin with single colours (back, stomach, etc), but I don't see much capability here for detail work. And its not clear to me how the Robot handles blood - a human artist will wipe it away, restablish boundaries (i.e., check progress against finished design) and continue tattooing. If the Robot doesn't do this you're gonna be one bloody camper - litterally dripping! - by the time its over.

Its not clear to me how the Robot determines depth. By this I mean how deep the needle is penetrating. If your Artist (human or Robot) doens't go deep enough, your growing skin will just push the design out as new cells form under the ink. Driving the needle too deep is another set of problems - potentially severe - as well.

How will the Robot handle different skin? Everyones skin is different and absorbs ink differently. This is really a judgement call on the artists part - different coloured ink looks different on different peoples skin. You just can't use a bottle of RED and assume it will look the same on any two people because it won't. A good artist will adapt to this problem, both in real time (i.e., while the work is being done) and before the work begins.

Also, don't forget that more complex 'Tats typically take multiple sessions, so you'll have a calibration problem next time you visit (i.e., aligning the machine and the existing 'Tat).

Its not uncommon for some back pieces to take months if not years, involving dozens of sessions so these registration problems are potentially major.

Heres the problem,

[papasui]

When you got to a tattoo shop and say I want this tattoo the artist makes it and puts a bit of their style into it and it comes out unique to you. This robot will probably create the exact same tattoo for everyone that picks one out of a book.

Real uses for this

[No Such Agency]

I suspect that the eventual use for this tech might be more along the lines of tattooing livestock etc, not people. I have no idea if livestock are tattooed for any reason (is branding still used?) but if you had to put tracking #'s on a large number of cows this might be the fastest way to do it. Needless to say, and at the risk of peripherally invoking Godwin's Law, I really hope nobody ever again wants to put tracking #'s on large numbers of people :-(

2 years too late..

[LinuxHam]

He missed a big market for people wanting to get the DeCSS code tattooed on them.. I'd like to see a collection of ThinkGeekish one-liners or icons..

the I/O power button right over your heart..
chmod +x /bin/laden..
"tattoo" in binary..
WTF?
STFU
the LNX or MP3 oval sticker
foo on one arm and bar on the other (or knuckles like jake & elwood)..

I have a tatoo in binary!

[stackdump]

I used "-" for ones and "o" for zeroes, it is my last name "york" minus the "y", (my friends call me "ork" for some reason) so anyay it looks like this o--o----o---oo-oo--o-o-- and is situated vertically on my left arm. Here is a Picture (i didnt want to show the picture hosted on my dsl modem, just in case)

Grrrr

[CharlesV]

I had this idea two months ago... PROOF!

Can I sue for prior art or somesuch?

as a tattoo collector

[painehope]

...and former body piercer ( as well as being a computer science major and sysadmin, just for background ), i don't think this thing has a chance in hell. As it currently exists, the quality is shoddy compared to the level of competency I expect from a professional tattoo artist. I'm sure that if money were thrown into it, a better tattoo robot could be built, but it would only be good for flash ( off the wall, FYI ) pieces, and even then, it would lack the creative touches that make even a flash tattoo memorable. A lot of people get custom tattoos ( most of mine are ) that will never be worn by anyone else, so the overhead to draw the sketch, then input it to a program to set the robot ( or program the robot yourself ) is prohibitive. The body modification scene puts a heavy emphasis on art and style, and I don't see any shop owners running out to buy one of these.
I wouldn't get a tattoo by a robot. I'm a total technofetishist, but I would miss the human interaction. I pick certain artists for their style of doing things. Someone really has to be into the style of the tattoo for me to get the work done. No machine can duplicate that.
Now, for the police state implications, hell, they could have already invented it, but I think that's going to far, and even the people who accept ( largely through ignorance ) the post-911 shenanigans of the government agencies and police would balk at this. It's too sinister. If they could pull it off, they undoubtedly would have done so already.
Just my $0.02.