Leveraging Science to Take Personal Connectivity to the Next Level
Tattoos are reverse time machines; with time travel, you can send a warning back to your younger self, with tattoos, you send a mistake forward to your older self. Tattoos are an excellent way to turn a single drunken decision into a lifetime of disfigurement and regret (which can also result from a very sober, sane decision), which normally would require a car.
As commitments go, tattoos are a pretty big one. And these best friend tattoos/couple tattoos/mother-daughter tattoos add an extra layer to an already ill-conceived idea. Generally associated with criminal gangs, the armed forces, and whiny white teenagers desperate for attention, “getting inked” has surprisingly been on the rise lately- according to the Harris Poll of 2015, three in ten Americans (29%) have at least one tattoo.
And now, taking the affair up a notch, a biotech company Endeavor Life Sciences, has developed a product called Everence — a combination of “forever” and “reverence” — that incorporates a person’s DNA into your tattoo.
The company is now taking pre-orders for their DNA product, which can be added to tattoo ink by the artist of your choice.
In order
to take part, the company asks you to mail your DNA samples to Endeavor’s laboratory in Quonset, R.I., where the material is milled, sterilized and enclosed in microscopic capsules of plexiglass – which is often used in medical applications like dentures, bone cement, and cosmetic surgery.In essence, at the Endeavor Life Sciences production facility, they extract short strands of DNA from their DNA collection kits, amplify and purify that DNA, and microencapsulate the DNA in a medical-grade polymer (PMMA) – purifying the finished product before sending it back to the consumer. The product is sent back in a powder form, along with a certificate of authenticity and extra DNA in an FTA card, which can be used to verify the DNA by a third-party DNA lab if desired.
Reportedly, this practice is safe for injection because the non-biodegradable polymer used doesn’t absorb into the skin, which eliminates the risk of being recognized by the immune system. However, it doesn’t come without risk. As of right now, tattoo ink is recognized by the FDA as a cosmetic — meaning it’s not regulated (although the administration does caution consumers about potential infections and dangers of tattoos).
Everence can be taken to any tattoo artist of your choosing. The tattoo artist opens the safety seal on your Everence vial, mixes it with any ink or carrier solution he or she chooses and applies the Everence/ink mixture just as he or she would in any other tattoo. It does not affect the tattoo or tattoo process. Everence is completely colorless once applied to the body and can even be applied to the skin without ink (via carrier solution) and remain invisible.
https://youtu.be/vUI_dWjGSB4
With the move, retired Navy SEAL, Boyd Renner, and his business partner, Patrick Duffy, co-founders of Endeavor Life Sciences, join the handful of biohackers, artists, and technologists already delving into the world of biogenic tattoo artistry.
The process was not without challenges though as is expected when inventing a product, starting a company and bringing a technology this unique to the market. It was a four-and-a-half year process from inception to roll out. The Endeavor team underwent a rigorous patent process that was ultimately successful.
