Tattoo links to website through Smartphone app

PHOENIX - Ink fanatics are giving up just a little more skin for a new type of tattoo that takes identity to a whole new level.

At The Jade Monkey Tattoo in Phoenix, artist Levi Smith is designing new tattooes called a quick response or “QR” code, which is very similar to a bar code.

The roughly 3 by 3 inch, black tattoo is being described as a marketing bar code tool that Smartphone users can scan directly into their phone.

Once the code registers into the specific application, it will direct you to a website which has been encoded into the tattoo.

ABC15 caught up with a local artist hoping to promote his band, 69 Sins.

“I didn’t even realize how cool it worked and how easy it is for somebody to take their Smartphone, scan the tattoo and automatically be directed to my band’s website and Facebook,” Mitchell Toten said. “It’s the latest way to self promote our music or any other business."

It sounds like technology straight from a movie and Smith admits that some have criticized the tattoos, fearful that they may be required to get one in order to be identified or make purchases someday.

But the artist himself and those already sporting the tattoo try and squash those rumors by encouraging the go-green movement and personal safety.

“Think about it, medical patients these days wear medical bracelets which is just like a little tattoo,” Toten says in between buzzing from the tattoo gun. “If a paramedic comes up and [the victim] is unable to speak, a quick scan of the tattoo and all their medical history is pulled up.”

A handful of people have already been permanently “bar coded,” for about $80.