Do Sound Wave Tattoos Actually Exist?

Soundwave tattoos are designs created from audio clips, which can be scanned and played back via a smartphone app. The process was pioneered by an augumented reality app Skin Motion, developed by Nate Siggard in 2017. The app transforms a treasured audio recording into a visual soundwave, which is then transferred into permanent ink on the skin. The soundwave is then played back using a smartphone app, which translates the tattoo’s wavelengths into sound.

Skeptics question the accuracy of soundwave tattooing, but others have created soundwave tattoos of their girlfriend’s voice and baby’s happy gurgle. A video demonstration of the technology uploaded to Facebook quickly amassed thousands of views. The company that makes these scannable soundwave tattoos uploads the recording into their cloud account, so when you want to hear the clip, you “scan” your arm using a smartphone app.

Skin Motion, founded in 2017 in California, claims to be able to tattoo up to a minute of audio on your body. To play the soundwave, all you need to do is hold a camera phone to the finished soundwave. The idea behind this tattoo style is that it allows you to play an audio file from a tattoo, mirroring the shape of a waveform of a recording.