Tattooing, an art that was illegal in the United States as recently as 2004, is now more accessible than ever. The number of tattoo parlors in the US has ballooned to over 20,000 (that's more than the country's approximately 13,500 McDonald's). Booking a tattoo appointment is just an e-mail or DM away. And perhaps most crucially, attitudes towards inked skin have become more accepting.
Despite the leaps and bounds tattooing has made over the last two decades, the latest innovation to hit the industry sounds straight out of a sci-fi novel. Imagine: tattoos that can can be turned on, turned off, and redesigned at will. It's a mind-blowing concept that, thanks to tattoo artist Keith "Bang Bang" McCurdy, is now a reality.
Enter: Magic Ink, the world's first "rewritable" tattoo ink that disappears and reappears when exposed to specific wavelengths of UV light.
McCurdy, whose work graces the likes of Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez, has always sought to "redefine tattooing," as he puts it. "How do we bridge the gap between tattoo and fashion?" When McCurdy opened his first shop in 2013, he reinvented the tattoo parlor, offering an elevated experience that valued the artist and customer as much as the final product. Reinventing the tools of the trade — ink, the building block of any tattoo — was a logical next step.
So McCurdy connected with scientist Carson Bruns, who has been experimenting with UV-reactive tattoo ink since 2018. Bruns, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at University of Colorado Boulder's ATLAS Institute, most recently developed an ink that reacts to sunlight, an innovation that he hopes can be used to prevent skin cancer. While Bruns saw the invention as a medical tool, McCurdy saw its artistic potential: "Instead of giving people the ability to see UV, [we could] give people the ability to control their expression."
Last August, the pair founded HYPRSKN, a biotech company that will specialize in "smart" tattoo ink. Magic Ink is its first product.
So, how exactly does Magic Ink work? "The magic ingredient is a photochromic particle," McCurdy says, likening it to a door that can be opened or closed. "If you give it the right wavelength of UV light, that door will open and you can see its color. If you give it white light, you'll close that door and you won't see its color."
With the wave of a special light, Magic Ink tattoos can be hidden and revealed — functionality that offers new possibilities for people who need to conceal tattoos for their job (say, a modeling gig or acting role). It also offers new artistic possibilities: For example, traditional tattoos can be augmented with revealable and concealable Magic Ink elements.
You can also change the design of a Magic Ink tattoo. "Imagine we tattooed a solid circle on your wrist, a solid dot of Magic Ink. Inside of that dot, you can choose which particles are activated," McCurdy says. "You could do that with a stencil — like a sticker with a cutout — or you can draw on your own skin with a device we've made called the Magic Pen, which is a stylus for your skin."
On January 18, McCurdy's BANG BANG Tattoo, located in downtown New York City, will open bookings for Magic Ink tattoos. And later this year, McCurdy will begin distributing Magic Ink to a group of "legacy artists," a selection of the most-followed and renowned tattoo artists across the world.
If you're interested in getting a Magic Ink tattoo, there are a few of things to keep in mind. The experience of getting a Magic Ink tattoo is the same as that of a standard tattoo (they're not more painful, nor do they take longer to complete), but you do have to wait for Magic Ink to heal before its UV-reactive properties work. In other words, don't immediately hit your raw skin with the tiny UV flashlight McCurdy and his team give you to take home.
Secondly, Magic Ink is, at the moment, only available in magenta — so don't expect to get a full color or black and grey piece just yet. McCurdy explains that tattoo ink works on a CYM (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta) color model, just like a printer. Magic Ink in cyan and yellow is currently in development. Once both are available, they can be combined with magenta to create black.
Lastly, Magic Ink tattoos more expensive than standard tattoos (but not by an "exorbitant amount," McCurdy clarifies). "Standard inks are pretty cheap," McCurdy says. Most are priced at around $20 a bottle, while "[Magic Ink] is about $100 a bottle."
McCurdy is quick to gently but firmly refute comparisons between Magic Ink and Ephemeral, the "made-to-fade" tattoo company that shuttered its parlors after customers began complaining that their tattoos didn't fade as promised. In addition to passing cytotoxicity testing led by dermatologist Adarsh Mudgil, Magic Ink has been tested on "50 to 100" participants, McCurdy estimates (he has 50 Magic Ink tattoos himself).
"Every tattoo we made was reviewed by [Mudgil] as a board-certified dermatologist. And all those tattoos we made behaved as well, or better, than the standard ink tattoos we made.
"The New York Times asked me long ago what I thought of Ephemeral and I said that it devalued an art form that has struggled to gain as much monetary traction as other art forms have. Making a tattoo that will degrade over time means the tattoo price point is lower, which means the technician is less skilled. I have safety concerns anytime there's a less-than-professional tattoo artist."
McCurdy continues: "[Ephemeral] didn't have a tattoo artist leading it... I personally don't work with companies that are making tattoo products that don't have a tattoo artist at a senior position. You're not going to change tattooing from the outside-in. It has to happen from the inside-out, with people who are really passionate and love tattooing and want to improve it."
