The tattoos that can be ‘turned off’: erasable ink allows you to have second thoughts about being inked
- A tech company in the United States has developed an erasable tattoo ink that can be turned invisible using lasers
- The ink’s molecular structure is different to normal tattoo ink, and your tattoo can be made to disappear in a single session
A start-up wants to give you a tattoo you will never regret – in part because the ink can be “turned off” instantaneously.
Inque is a venture-capital-backed tech company that has developed an erasable tattoo ink. It has already tattooed about 3,300 volunteers over the past few years as part of product development, and is gearing up for its commercial debut sometime next year.
Inque is betting that while there are many tattooed Americans, the population that wants a tattoo but has chosen not to get inked accounts for a much bigger market.
About three in 10 Americans have at least one tattoo, roughly the same ratio as people with iPhones in the United States, according to an online survey by the Harris Poll in 2015. Tattoos are especially popular among the younger generations, it found. A rise in demand injected US$1.7 billion into the US tattoo market in 2019.
“There are people who want that tattoo but are frightened away out of a fear of permanence or a fear of safety,” says Robb Osinski, chief executive of Inque’s parent company, Bambu Global. “We have proven that there is a latent market for people who want tattoos and have chosen not to get them for those reasons.”