Tattoos may provide the vaccines of the future. A new study shows that using a vibrating tattoo needle to deliver vaccine produces 16 times more antibodies than a typical injection, which goes into muscle tissue. So will we be going down to our local tattoo parlors to get vaccine serum tattoos instead of ink? Not a bad idea, say the researchers. Vaccine tattoos could become the must-have biotech body mods of the twenty-first century.

According to the BBC:

Dr Martin Mueller, one of the researchers behind this work, says that the greater damage to the body caused by the tattoo needle may explain the better immune response. The scientists say that the tattoo needles would never be suitable for preventative vaccines, such as measles, in children as the pain would be too great.

Obviously it wouldn't work for kids, but this could be the perfect Tattoo 2.0 tech for a generation sick of boring old tattoos that do nothing but display static images. These tattoos actually have an effect on the health and chemistry of your body. Next up: drug tattoos.

Tattoos May Help Deliver Vaccine [BBC]