Technology has come a long way, but did you ever think that you would be able to hear your loved ones, or your favorite song play through your tattoo?
Two friends got the idea from a simple comment, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could listen to the tattoo?” and from there the idea took off. After Nate Siggard, founder of Soundwave Tattoo, realized he would be able to make just that happen, he took to Facebook to share his tattoo. People immediately started becoming interested and wanting their own music tattoo.
So how does it work?
“A person uploads or records the audio they want into the app or website. We generate the Soundwave from that. The person takes the generated Soundwave to a tattoo artist from our Artist Network. Artists need to be licensed in order to make sure they understand the limitations of the technology and how that applies to tattoo placement, size, and changes to the design of the tattoo from a simple Soundwave to make it more custom or elaborate on it for the person. Once the Artist does the tattoo, a photo of the tattoo is uploaded to our platform. Our platform processes the audio and tattoo and adds it to the app. When the user opens our app and points the camera on their mobile device at the tattoo, it recognizes the shape of the Soundwave and plays back the audio.”
They hope to launch the app in the summer of 2017. From there you can get a tattoo with your favorite song (up to 1 minute) from one of the many registered tattoo artists around the world. Like anything there have been a number of skeptics. To help show people that the tattoo and app are legit Nate posted this video.
We recently talked to a local Portland tattoo artist Jesse, about his thoughts on Soundwave. He made us consider some possible concerns, but he also thinks this could be a really cool thing.
As a sentimental piece he sees it as a good thing. Being able to have a sentimental piece on your body is powerful. He also sees it being overdone and becoming a fad, possibly turning into a regrettable tattoo, like a lower back tat. Also, with the app not yet being released we do not know how much the creators will charge, or if you will have to pay for the rights. With this being so new we do not know how well the app will read tattoos that stretch out, or become faded.
Being able to talk to an artist in the business opened our eyes to some things we hadn’t thought of. (We’re not running out to get one quite yet.) The long term, the price, and how many artists are going to want to continue to do these tattoos after they become more of a fad are things to consider. But Jesse really highlighted how much of a great thing this could be for people going through a loss, or always having a memory close to you.
“Soundwave Tattoos are an entirely new type of media, bridging the physical and digital worlds in real time.”
What message will you be tattooing on your body?
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