Original story

SatWeb 30.4.2009

Video tattoos eat into virtual jewellery market - police investigate links with Cyberpunk radicals

The virtual jewellery fair which closed in Osaka today did not enjoy the success that manufacturers must surely have been expecting. One reason is the rapid spread of video tattoos. The video tattoo boom has already reached fever proportions. *

Tattoo parlours can hardly have been more fashionable than they are today. Since the launching on the market in 2004 of tattooing materials as a spin-off from new developments in nanotechnology, the popularity of video tattoos has spread to all sections of society. Most wearers carry a tattooed watch or pulsometer on their skin, but the latest applications have included such things as tele- and multivision screens, blood pressure gauges, and a host of different animations.

Tattoo technology and many of its now-fashionable applications have been developed by the virtual organization Super Bonk, which police believe has links to the Cyberpunks. The organization operates on two levels. The public front is the Super Bonk network cooperative, which owns the patents and manufacturing rights. In the shadows, however, is a second, less official organization that apparently operates on the basis of very vague undocumented agreements. The management model of this backroom organization is still a mystery. Financial analysts have estimated that Super Bonk is the world’s first virtual organization to make the FORTUNE 500 list. Studies have indicated that the aggregate turnover in the tattooing branch as a whole is already in excess of USD 10,000 million. This is an astonishing growth from next to nothing in the space of only five years, and represents a kind of world record, according to market experts.

Super Bonk has granted manufacturing and product development licenses to several materials suppliers, manufacturers of tattooing equipment, and video tattoo studios. Tattooscripters can be used for routine pieces applied to relatively easy parts of the body. For example a pulsometer, blood pressure gauge, or simple wristwatch design can be programmed into the scripter in advance. On the other hand, more extensive designs requiring great detail and accuracy still need the hand of a skilled professional, particularly for finishing. A good tattoo artist is capable of taking account of the character and flexibility of the skin and of constructing a logical matrix for the design in accordance with the individual dermatological make-up.

Within the European Union, tattoo density has already reached around 600 per 1,000 inhabitants, but many have opened up their skin to several video designs, in some cases as many as ten. Walking down the street during the summer months it is not uncommon to meet an individual who is a live digiwatch, mobile phone and sphygmomanometer, and whose body surface - containing perhaps half a dozen competing animations - gives a whole new meaning to the late 20th century term “skinflicks”.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2004–2014
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, mutta rajatusti
  • Ilmiön ydin: iholle kiinnitettävä joustava näyttö tai elektroninen tatuointi yhdistää koristelun, viestinnän ja terveystiedon.

Elektronisia tatuointeja, iholle laminoitavia sensoreita ja venyviä näyttöjä on kehitetty tutkimuksessa ja joissakin tuotteissa. Täysvärinen pysyvä videopinta iholla ei ole muuttunut massamuodiksi.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui teknisesti tunnistettavana mutta jäi rajalliseksi.