Glucose-sensitive tattoos...

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AdeV

AdeV

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Just found a link to this research paper in my LinkedIn feed, it doesn't seem to have made it here yet, hence posting.

It's very early days, the experiments have been on pig skin, but this could be a bit of a game changer?


I've never been even remotely interested in a "tat", but a glucose monitoring tat would change my mind for sure!
 
Not entirely sure how I feel about people being tattooed purely as a result of a medical condition.
 
There have been reports of this sort of thing for years that have not come to fruition.
 
I prefer my Libre as I can take it off. Those pics remind me of the old BM sticks and their colour scales.
 
The pain of having a tattoo is much greater than the pain of applying a CGM sensor to your skin once a fortnight. How long does this stuff last anyway?

And what happens to people of colour? I assume they have been eliminated from any trial.
 
See I already have a full back tattoo of a tiger bearing it’s claws, I’m worried if I had one of those it would look a bit OTT
 
ColinUK said:
Not entirely sure how I feel about people being tattooed purely as a result of a medical condition.
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yeah ... has chilling echoes
 
Some interesting responses....

Colin & Void - I'm pretty sure that, if these ever come to market, they won't be compulsory, unlike the tattoos I suspect you're thinking of.

mikeyB, I'm pretty sure people with darker skin won't be excluded - after all, they can - and do - have tattoos as well. As for the pain? I couldn't tell you, I've never had a tattoo - but plenty of people have: I'm sure it is painful, but I'd expect this sort of tat to be small, and in a discrete area, somewhere you can check easily, but not necessarily somewhere that would really hurt; like the face, or groin, or whatever.

Obviously this is early days for this particular research, having only been tried on pig skin (presumably not a live pig?); but honestly, if I could have a small (5p coin sized, say) permanent "glucose monitor" tattoo - perhaps on my wrist, where my watch usually lives, then I'd be willing to give it a try. Beats pricking your finger every few hours, IMHO.
 
Generally, the only IMO justification in getting a tattoo of any description is (as an adult) genuinely (and personally) wanting one.

The only "exclusion" i can see for people with a darker skin is one of application, meaning that although people with darker skin get tattoos, they're not coloured, because the colours can't be distinguished easily, surely the point of a glucose marker.
 
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I have just had a thought when the BM blood testing strips were used for testing levels, it was sometimes difficult to interperate the result as it was colour change that gave the result.
 
There's also the not-being-able-to-remove-it-when-you-want aspect. Then in a (presently hypothetical) situation where we're tattoo'd "for our own good" we'd need to justify to an authority its removal, and they can say "no".

nope no thanks
 
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