Electronic Tattoos / Squid Skin

While I am a nerd through and through, I don't look like one. I look like an ex-jock or hells angel except I don't have any tattoos.

I think many geeks became geeks more out of being meek looking and socially outcast than out of anything fundamentally different about their brain or intelligence. My brain on the other hand is wired differently. I have a fundamentally more difficult time socially interacting with people than an average person realizes. I have been trying to deal with this problem for most of my life. My thought process is fundamentally different. It's something like being dyslexic or having autism. Anyways I digress.

My appearance is that of a jock/biker. I'm a walking Neanderthal. I may have chosen to shave my head but overall I have little choice over what I look like or how strong I am or how my body is built. I am brains and brawn. For what I look like I must say tattoo's would look good on me. But I'm way too choosy and I am apt to change my mind. I dare say if I eventually decide to have traditional tattoos I would plan out my whole body theme and design before one drop of ink were injected into my skin and it would all be completed within a year.

But it just occurred to me while sitting in a bar this Saturday looking at other people with tattoos, what if tattoos could be dynamically changed? What if something equivalent to E-Ink were injected into the skin rather than pigments... You could erase or make them transparent in the morning when you goto work and turn them on after a change of closes after work... At another level you could change your tattoo design as often as you changed your clothes. It would be a little bothersome as you would need to move something like an electronic printer over any skin you wished to change.

This isn't completely practical with modern E-Inks as they have a limited life and can only be changed a limited number of times. But something equivelent and more reliable is sure to core around.

Now think about squids. Some squids can not only dynamic change their coloring and pattern dynamically but can also glow to a limited extent.

This isn't a prediction, this is going to happen. A guy will be able to walk into the equivalent of a plastic surgeons office and get a blood sample taken, the following week he will return and be given a shot. This shot will transform his outer skin into something similar to a squids membrane, complete with new nerves that will interface with an implanted microcomputer somewhere in his body. He will be able to think and instantly change the appearance of his skin.. just like a squid and be able to save and restore patterns to an external computer. Something similar might even be available with hair. I don't know about you but this thought just blows me mind. Forget about clothes... hmmm which tattoo am I going to wear today...