What Is A Tattoo With Magic Ink?

Ohh I love it, this is giving pilot friction erasable ink pen that it’s marketed towards students because it’s erasable like a pencil but it’s a pen but what they don’t tell you is that it gets erased by friction which essentially generates heat on the ink that will get erased so when you live in a HOT humid country this wonderful pen gets erased by itself and all your class notes are just gone. Don’t ask me how I know 🙂

Also, besides the fact that injecting plastic into yourself is bad (PMMA is plexiglass), almost all transparent plastics will turn yellow as they degrade. So not only will your tattoo probably stop being able to turn on and off, you might end up with a yellow splotch that looks like an old bruise for the rest of your life

If the people accepting blood money to promote magic ink really want to support the product, and show that it’s so incredibly safe, then I believe they should all get at least one reasonably sized tattoo done with it themselves. Then they can show us all how amazing it truly is. This isn’t going to happen though 🙄

Ryan is called out on her page for promoting this. I am bummed because I really like her and I love her tattoos. Other tattoo artists have spoken against this. It’s going to be a disaster because I feel the ones that support this target a very special audience. How can they promote a product that has such a high risk?

Bit off topic but transition lenses are SO much worse than the alternative of owning a separate pair of prescription sunglasses or getting clip-on frames. My transition glasses were the most annoying glasses I’ve owned. They’d constantly end up in that in-between phase of not being dark enough to be useful sunglasses, but dark enough to be a nuisance trying to look at stuff indoors. This article gave me transition lense flashbacks

This is the first time ive ever heard about this and i agree that its a bit gimmicky- and i agree with a number of the concerns and criticisms you brought up, however.. 1) the complaint about it not being well explained in the beginning- the thing the chemical engineer said was an explanation of how it works if you understood what she said. (I have a degree in chemical engineering, so i understood. I get that most people wouldn’t though) but then you complained about the stuff on their website describing in detail how it worked. I feel like its pretty normal to expect people who want more details about how it works to visit your website to see if you have shared studies about it. Basically my complaint is you saying they were overly vague when they really weren’t – 2) i agree that the sun activating it can kinda defeat the purpose. but when they said sunscreen deactivates it for a short time- and you said sunscreen should work for a long time- thats incorrect, there is a reason you’re supposed to reapply sunscreen every 2 hours according to most bottles of sunscreen. I also dont think that them pointing this out in any way was meant to encourage people not to use sunscreen on it. They were just stating the fact that sunscreen can block UV and it would make it so you cant activate your tattoo for a short period of time. This makes sense and there isnt really a way to say that other than that. i get that people are stupid and might decide not to wear sunscreen because of it, but people are stupid whether you tell them what to do or not.

Even with new STYLES of tattooing, like the sparkle tattoo trend or the watercolor tattoo thing, I’m always skeptical of them until I can see how they’ve aged AT LEAST five years. A better timeframe is ten. Which I get can be frustrating to innovation in the tattoo industry but these things are permanent alterations of people’s bodies and even traditional tattooing changes over the decades on the body.

The clothes thing kind of confuses me 🤔 I gave my boyfriend a color changing shirt in August. It’s blue without UV and only cost $30. I can’t say much about longevity since it’s only been 5 months but hearing “all beige” and “$500” doesn’t make sense. I completely agree that the tattoo ink sounds like a bad idea though.

while I agree with most of your criticisms I do feel like it’s worth pointing out white light is just like a regular flashlight so losing it isn’t really an issue and you can activate the tattoos prior to putting on sunscreen so you could still have the tattoo and wear sunscreen. Nobody is advising anyone to not wear sunscreen but clearly someone could extrapolate that to be the case. That being said the fact they haven’t tested on darker skin tones or with laser prior to sale is egregious especially with a 100$ price tag for 2 mls of ink that so heavily degrades on contact with air.

I always find it interesting how many celebrities, who have lots of money & can go to anyone, often have tattoos that are ok at best or just poorly done. Or, they’ll only go to these ‘celebrity tattoo artists’, just to get something that any decent local artist could have done just as well if not better, like a tiny letter or number or something

the clothing article made me think. We had a lot of UV fabrics in the sewing community as a gimmicky thing back in 2018-2019 I think (so it would make sense that the UV colour change hype was at it’s biggest back then and that is why they started trying to make it a tattoo ink). It was mostly fabrics that had lots of little black patterns, say dinosaurs or ice lollies. cute little patterns mostly aimed at kids – and you could make like dressers or hats or whatever of the fabric. and when it came in contact with sunlight, the little figures would suddenly get coloured in. It was super cute and cool for the kids as they had “magical clothes”. Once back inside it would slowly fade away again. But I say a gimmick – because the fabrics usually only stayed colour changing for UP to a year. many even faded at 3-4months and never re-activated. I know some people got roped into buying bulk of these fabrics, and then basically have them lose effectiveness while still in the fabric stash, and never being able to make items or sell them like planned. (so not even being used, just natural day/night cycle and exposure to air). Now UV-reactive clothes are really not a big thing in the sewing community at least, but the consensus is that if you want it – also buy some fabric pens. so when they do loose the ability to change colours (not if, but when), then at least the kids can colour in the figures and “design their own” characters. All that to say, I hope people see this as the gimmicky trend it is, and as few people as possible jump on it – because I’d hate to see people put unknown substances in their skin in the hope it holds their promises.

Okay, so here is a dumb question: What if you don’t want it to show up and you like going outside? Will you have to keep your ink covered? Like… if the point is to make and invisible tattoo, but you have to cover yourself to not activate them outdoors, why not just get REGULAR ink and wear long sleeves?

8:22 This reminds me so much of the “magnetic” ink tattoos that were proposed over a decade ago. I think Nokia also had something in patent that could change shape/vibrate near certain stimuli – eg if the phone was on silent, that tattoo would “vibrate” under the skin. It was all very similar to how magnetic manicures work.

PMMA? PolyMethylMethAcrylate? It’s what we use in dentistry for orthodontic plates or removable dental prosthetics. Yeah, it’s safe if it has been fully polymerised and there are no leftover monomers floating around. You could be allergic to it though, or develop an allergy later on. I’m no medical doctor, but I don’t know if injecting PMMA is great, since you could be allergic to it. But then again I don’t know how much PMMA the ink contains and if it would be a problem or not

The only way i could see getting this is a tiny line and if it ever became visible while outside id know to cover myself in sunscreen. As someone whos covered in tattoos, absolutely NO way, i have wayyyyy to many questions here. Migration? How will it last in general? They say its meant to last but its only been “tested” for 5 years, which isn’t shit, especially in comparison to something lasting a lifetime. How would you get it removed if you wanted it gone? Could the lazer melt the plastic particles under your skin? How does it work on other skin types? seeing as ive only seen it applied on light skin. Is there a higher risk of infection or rejection? I could go on and on haha. You look stunning! Thank you for the wonderful article 🙂

I feel like the marketing is heavily relying on the “appeal to authority” fallacy. As you said, they are using TONS of scientific, technical jargon to essentially avoid answering legitimate questions. It may be relevant that I am a biologist and have taught secondary school science for 6 years…. I am well-practiced in making complex concepts easily digestible. I can tell you with high confidence that the Magic Ink team are purposely using confusing language. It’s a major red flag in my professional opinion!

PMMA inks have been around for many decades now. Fish and wildlife up in Canada uses something similar for tracking fish, which is considered food safe. The only ink I would call a safe black light ink~ is a PMMA ink. It has been hard to source for years, the last company I could find making it closed in the 90’s. I want so much more information on this product, the possibilities are interesting but you raise some important questions about sun exposure.

I feel like I heard some rumbling about this in a medical usage, as a way to know about your UV exposure. Like having a band or dot on an arm and if you’re out in the sun and it lights up you know you need to reapply sunscreen. I definitely put this in the same category as black light ink. I’ll be interested to see what becomes of it in the long term in skin. And I wonder if you can pinpoint activate the ink and then put sunscreen over it to protect your skin from the outside light or, if you have the square patch, to keep it from activating the rest of the square. While no amount of UV is safe, we make choices in other areas of life to have some low exposure this doesn’t feel any different. But it probably does need a warning label.

My immediate thought was the whole “turn on and off” was a temporary. Like how you have to “charge up” some glow in the dark things. I just imagined the ink when hit with a certain light fades for like 15 minutes. And based on that immediate thought and the fact I noticed how all the vague wording did not clarify if that was or was not the case – I will only hold this “amazing” ink in the utmost suspicion.

Assuming it color shifts 4 times a day just from entering and exiting your home and work and such, it would last 7 years for 10k changes… but like if they just poured out some ink then many molecules would essentially be shaded from the lights making it appear functional longer. If they tattooed pork skin and did this test i would think this was a better test.. after 2 years that makes more sense especially since its not just activated then shielded from more light/uv. Glow in the dark colors have the same issue of fatigue with use/excitation.

What scares me the most isn’t the fact that all these tattoos artists and “specialists” have bad intentions (we’re used to it sadly), it’s the fact that SO many people are gonna be bindly trusting that gimmick without putting much thoughts into it and that is what’s scary about our society now. Some people will do anything for a 30secs tiktok of fame

When I was 12 years old, I bought a spy kit at a school book fair because it had a pen with magic ink that could only be revealed with a “special light”, which was a UV light. My friend and I would write notes to eachother on our desk during class and use the light to read it, subtly pointing with your finger to show where the latest 6th grade gossip was scrawled. We’d write the type of stupid things you imagine 12 year old girls would write about: who was cute, who had a crush on them, and which girl stuffed her bra. Do you know what happens to invisible, UV-activated, “magic ink” on a school desk in less than a school year?? It stops being invisible. And mayybe you notice in horror after returning to school following spring break as your friend drapes herself over the desk trying (and failing miserably) to seem casual, silently screaming at you from across the room with only her eyes while hiding the faint but visible doodles and notes that cover the desk. Moral of the story, those tattoos aren’t staying invisible!

So I’m a cosmetic chemist and I’m a little concerned by how vague they are about the “UV light” like, any UV light? A specific wavelength? Does sunscreen make it not ‘magic’ anymore? Like, I get they’re trying to not bog the ads down with science but what you have to do more than just saying “look! It’s cool”

In vitro means testing on an organism taken outside of its normal biological context. The best in vitro skin test done today is using a 3D model of skin. In a scientifically worded, deceitful way the company has admitted the majority of testing done was not on actual human skin. The test they did on humans was to give them 2 tattoos at the same time, noting self-reports of pain management and taking pictures of the healing tattoos during the first 21 days after tattooing. And ends it all with “a board-certified dermatologist assessing for erythema, swelling, scale/crust, and tenderness.” And that’s it. That’s the study, on an ink with nano plastic that has never been used in the skin before, on the skin it’s used in hiding wrinkles and scars, but this is the first time embedding nano plastic IN the skin. Self-reporting dependent studies (like this study) are the least credible because it is too easily manipulated in your favor. All of the “objective” data gathered in this study was of the epidermis (the upper layer of skin exposed to the elements of life), not the dermis (the leather skin) where the tattoo ink is. A board-certified dermatological surgeon should know better. It is also shady af that nowhere does it state how many people partook in this study. Even more shady is that this study is not available for peer review, which is a must for innovative clinical studies like this. I feel professionally slapped in the face, and I am not a dermatologist but a biologist. This is going to kill people, whether it is the nano plastic causing complications or the very preventable skin cancer that will occur in clients because “the skin surgeon that made this said not to use sunscreen on this tattoo”.

When i heard the “heals in THREE DAYS” i was like ummmm i doubt that because my medical team calls me a super Saiyan when it comes to healing like my surgery incisions look and are almost completely healed in a half the usual time n i get asked my secret weapon to healing. And MY tattoos take like two weeks minimum to heal. My tattoo artist said “If i hadn’t tatted you up myself last month i would of sworn this was an old tattoo”

I’m gonna have that BigBang song stuck in my head this entire article bc of that artists name Also I guess they meant that the sun may effect it depending on the uv index of the day so you’d have to cover it up but like… How would it react under sunscreen? Edit: well that question kinda answered I guess, the whole “we’re testing it on dark skin now uwu” reminds me of when a makeup brand releases foundations or something and there’s no darker ones bc… idk racism bc it ain’t that difficult. Ofc tattoos are different but if you have all that money then invest in stuff that will give darker skin more variety and quality. Literally no reason to not push for innovation.

When I got my tattoo he suggested wrapping it for 3 to 5 days when sleeping. But that I should moisturize and clean it every day for 2 to 4 weeks. He said sense I have slightly more sensitive skin it may be on the longer side. (It was) so hearing taking care of it for THREE DAYS and not longer is crazy. I’m hoping the take care of it is wrapping it from the outside world. If not that irresponsible and encouraging a higher chance of infection. Because its multiple little open wounds. You don’t do surgery where you get cut open and think if it’s stopped bleeding and oozing it’s fine now after 3 days and take off the bandages. NO you keel that stuff on fir as long as possible.

What happens when people have both lights already purchased from a previous $100 buy of the ink? So they can’t just buy the ink at a lower price ’cause you’re not buying the lights ’cause you don’t need to get anymore? That ink should be $33 (since it’s 1/3 of the items from the $100 price of items) or at most $45 since bundling makes each item more fair of a price. $45 is high, but it’s less than $100 to have to always purchase two items that a return buyer wouldn’t need.

Hello! Med student interested in researching this here- interestingly i haven’t been able to find any evidence of their trial- ‘ten of hearts study’ in any medical journal? If any one else has id be grateful! Cos currently i cant see any evidence of it being peer reviewed….. or any stats to backup their data…. one slightly good thing i found is to the people saying pmma is dangerous i don’t think it is. Its used in bone cement- very funky stuff that is used to seal joint replacements- body playdough- having said that the stuff shouldn’t be exposed to UV…so who knows what effect that will have…though i guess its not direct exposure cos the skins in the way, still UV can in theory make it crack so thats fun. Now if UV where to make it crack then you’d have issues…… pmma is also the reason the ink is one use, the stuff degrades on exposure to air- going back to bone cement if you exposure it. to air it gets hot and really hard- its how they set it

Okay but…. an idea just occurred to me. What if, and hear me out now, what if this tech was used to show you when your suncream (or sunscreen as we say in the US) has lost its potency and it’s time to reapply? As a super pale person myself that would probably save so many folks from getting burnt or thinking they’re protected when they aren’t. A simple square in a place like the top of your hand would do. I’m not saying that I’m in love with this product, cause honestly there are a lot of issues (ie: price, lack of testing on darker skin, ect) but I think that it /could/ actually be used in a really smart and useful way.

UV light has a short wavelength, about 100-400 nm. Basically you can follow the rule: the shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy. Human eye cannot see UV light because of its high energy. Saying “low energy UV light” is not completely incorrect, but in this case blatant misinformation. (For comparison: Red light: about 2 eV, blue light: 2.95 eV, UV light: about 3.1 eV). Source: studying medical physics.

Soooo, looking into the dermatologist, he is “part of the HYPRSKN team”. This company (also, can somebody PLEASE buy a vowel!!!?) is promoting “groundbreaking research” into helping “at- risk individuals” protect themselves from UV damage and preventable diseases. But then it also promotes an ink that uses UV light to “activate” it. Anyone else see a conflict of interests here?

something i havent really seen pointed out is that, if this ink is activated by uv and deactivated by white light and has a limited number of activations/deactivations, well… white light is not at all uncommon, several of the bulbs in my house are white light and i doubt their little flashlights are much different, and of course the sun bombards us with uv light all the time and they admit that the sun will activate the ink. so then, if somebody with this ink in their skin goes outside in the sun and then goes inside anywhere lit with white light bulbs, and then out in the sun again, and then inside again, etc etc, as theyre just going about their day every day for years, then does that mean that the ink is going to be incidentally activated and deactivated over and over again and burn through all of its uses even when theyre not getting the entertainment of doing it on purpose?

I’ve seen TT “tattoo influencers” talking about about how this “will revolutionize tattoos.” BUT here’s the thing, they all just get tattooed. They aren’t artists with 20-40 years of experience in the industry. I bet half couldn’t tell you the science behind tattooing or how the technology works with our anatomy. That’s like saying because you’ve flown in the 1st class Emirates planes you’re an expert pilot, or Boeing engineer. Or because I’ve eaten at Hell’s Kitchen I can nail making a Beef Wellington and explain the molecular gastronomy behind the dish. No tattoo except a peel and stick is ever going to be temporary. You’re modifying your body by plunging needles into your dermis appropriately 100 X per second through the epidermis and depositing ink into the papillary layer where it accumulates. This is creating a trauma and your body’s response to stop the bleeding is to form a clot. This also results in in an edema (swelling) and the immune response to send neutrophils and macrophages cells (immune cells) to phagocytoses the foreign substance. The wounded papillary dermis collagen is repaired through a the action of fibroblasts, a connective tissue cell that produces the extracellular matrix and collagen, (scar tissue). This can also result in raised tattoos (scar tissue) called a hypertrophic scar, where the tissue grows over the boundaries of the original wound creating a puffy appearance called a keloid. They can be itchy, tender to the touch, or even painful. Keloids are most common in African, Asian, and to a lesser degree Hispanic and Mediterranean, the reasons are still unknown.

Any gimmicks like this and trends in the tattoo industry have never worked well. I made the mistake myself getting single needle ones in the past BUT I covered them with traditional cover ups which I love and only will get traditional now. I know traditional is a personal taste and I’m not saying other art styles aren’t as good, but traditional has been around for a very very long time and for me it’s the best! Old school tattoos all the way!

Imagine getting the red square ′customisable′ tattoo and ′torching′ your design carefully just for it to disappear when you go out under the sun. The only reason I′m not tattooed right now is because I get bored of things easily, so I′m the target audience. However, I′d only be interested IF it actually works safely WITHOUT UV. I don’t even use nail UV lamps… edit: Also, I′m not a chemistry or chemical engineering major by any means, but the word ′polymer′ used in the ad is already a red flag 😂

One doctor is not just as good as another, a dermatologist would not be able to know if it was safe. They don’t teach dermatologist about magic ink in school you need a specialist in toxicology and chemical compounds for that, like a scientist. I would think that anything activate by the light and heat of UV light would cause granulation tissue and yellowing of the skin. Since it wasn’t tested on deep skin tones I’m guessing there is probably a pale color to the ink that would be seen on darker skin.

This doesn’t appeal to me at all for a number of reasons. We don’t know what the long term consequences of this ink are yet, however safe they claim it is. If it’s UV activated with a low amount of UV energy, then surely just being out in natural daylight will activate it whether you want it to or not? I bet the torches you have to buy to activate/deactivate the ink cost an arm and a leg. And just my opinion, but I can’t think why I’d want a tattoo that wasn’t always visible. I like my tattoos and want them all to be visible all of the time. If I was to add on a bit of dragon flame like in the example given, I’d want that flame there all the time. I do feel kind of let down by Ryan Ashley, I have always loved her work and been a big fan of hers. Her jewel pieces are incredible, and I’d love to get one if I had the money! I know she’s very interested in innovation in tattooing, so I’m hoping she is just caught up in the apparent innovation of this stuff and will eventually see it for the gimmicky snake oil it is. Come on Ryan, you’re better than this!

I had transition glasses when I was a kid and they were kinda annoying, I liked art and appreciating and paying attention colors irl even then, so little me didn’t realise that not being to see real colors when outside would be annoying until my mum had already bought them. I haven’t bought such a pair in over a decade and a half and have no plans to.

17:38 not sure if their comment was in the realm of “don’t wear sunscreen” and more “sunscreen will block for a bit but it will activate at some point”. Sunscreens supposed to be reapplied whenever you sweat or after a few hours of sun exposure anyways so maybe that’s what they meant? Seems fishy though

I don’t want to hear from a dermatologist or chemical engineer, I wanna hear from a toxicologist! Was perusal a skincare debunking article the other day (can’t remember who it was, unfortunately), but they made the point that a lot of medical professionals are the ones who come up with these bs myths because the topic is adjacent to their fields but not directly in their experience. And people believe them because they’re board certified or wearing scrubs. For instance, a dermatologist making claims about different chemicals in hair products IS a doctor. But does not necessarily know everything about chemical engineering

I don’t have any tattoos and don’t plan on getting any. I just like perusal some stuff about tattoos. I don’t understand, why would you ever want a tattoo that doesn’t look exactly like you want at all times? If I’m getting a tattoo and I want it to be temporary I would get a temporary tattoo. I just don’t see the weird idea of wanting it to change. If I ever get a tattoo I would want it to be perfect and something I know I will want for the rest of my life. “Hey check this out. I just need to pull out my flashlight, give me a sec to activate the ink. Aw man, I forget it at home. I guess I have to show it to you later.” Like where’s the appeal in that?

It’s interesting technology, though I think it needs to be refined and explained more before it becomes widely available. It shouldn’t require a bunch of famous people to tell you it’s cool. It should be able to stand on its own. Also they claim to have tested this for 5 years but not on super deep skin tones? I absolutly do not believe that theres absolutly no one available with that skin tone who would take a free or discounted tattoo for an experement. Those things are expensive and theres many poor college studentsin america.

Just because you can turn it off doesn’t need no one will ever need to remove it… They admitted themselves that the sun can affect the tattoo so doesn’t that mean if someone goes tanning it could also turn the tattoo back on? If you want a tattoo gone you want it GONE, not “turned off” 🤦‍♀️🤣 yes I know tanning is bad for your skin and for tattoos but the fact that they’re telling people that they shouldn’t have to worry about getting it removed because it can be “turned off” 🤦‍♀️