These guys hacked a 3D printer and turned it into a high-precision tattoo machine
Adapting 3D printers to do things other than their intended purpose isn’t necessarily a new idea, but that doesn’t make this autonomous tattooing robot any less awesome. By attaching a standard tattoo needle head to a Makerbot 3D printer, the French design studio Appropriate Audiences has created an incredibly precise tattooing robot that can adapt any image inputted to its software into a tattoo-ink printable design – just insert body part.
The robotics of the machine allow the needle to automatically create any design on the skin at up to 150 punctures per second, executing highly repetitive action in much the same way a traditional 3D printer does. Appropriate Audiences says that their biggest challenge was finding a way to enable the printer to register the natural texture of human skin and the curvature of whatever body part is being tattooed. To make this possible, the machine’s custom-designed needle attachment includes a sensor that allows the robot to trace body contours and curved surfaces, without sacrificing precision artwork or needle safety.
