{"id":1172,"date":"2026-07-31T21:14:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:14:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:14:05","slug":"a-london-startup-is-selling-permanent-stick-on-tattoos-and-it-wants-to-do-mail-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"A London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos\u2014and It Wants to Do Mail Order"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today\u2019s entry to the ranks of \u201ctechnologies that are cool in a technical sense but also don\u2019t seem like a particularly great idea\u201d comes from London-based startup CipherX, which describes itself as \u201ca biotech start-up pioneering the next generation of microneedle technology for high-impact products across lifestyle, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical markets.\u201d If you\u2019re wondering exactly what that means, it translates as follows: they\u2019re selling permanent stick-on tattoos!<\/p>\n

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The tattoos use the company\u2019s proprietary \u201cMicroDot Technology\u2122 platform\u201d and come in the form of little patches that are pressed onto your skin for 15 minutes. The application process seems not unlike those temporary tattoos that you apply by pressing them onto your skin and then wetting them with a washcloth, except that in this case, instead of a washcloth, you use an applicator that pushes the patch against your skin, thus forcing the \u201cultra-fine, microscopic structures (smaller than 1 mm) \u2026 to penetrate the upper layers of the skin and deposit pigment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cultra-fine, microscopic structures\u201d seems to be a nice way of saying \u201ctiny needles,\u201d but apparently they\u2019re basically painless: The Verge\u2019s Jess Weatherbed took one for the team by actually getting one of these things, reporting that the application process \u201cfelt more like someone had lightly touched my arm with their finger.\u201d Clearly this is excellent news for people with needle phobias and others who have wanted a tattoo but have been unable or unwilling to subject themselves to traditional tattooing.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s worth pointing out, however, that options are currently pretty limited, both in quantity and in complexity. All the tattoos available so far are basically laid out on a grid, with each filled square corresponding to a single dot\u2014or microdot, I guess\u2014of ink. This means that the results look like very precise stick-and-pokes. The designs available on the CX website lean into this aesthetic, including simple geometric designs (stars, hearts, lines) along with some Wingdings-y items (a musical note, a butterfly, a skull and\u2014for our raver friends\u2014a smiley face). As far as colors, you, well, you can have any color you like, so long as it\u2019s black. All this means that actual tattoo artists shouldn\u2019t worry too much about this technology, despite founder Ferdinand Kohle\u2019s proclamation in a London Tech Week video that \u201cthe skill level to apply these tattoos is extremely low\u2026 so anyone essentially can be a tattoo artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kohle\u2019s blog on the CipherX site is pretty wild reading, by the way. If you thought that this was just a new way to deliver stick-and-pokes, think again: \u201cConceptually, a microneedle tattoo reframes tattooing from symbolic inscription to technological embedding,\u201d Kohle writes. \u201cIn that sense, a microneedle tattoo isn\u2019t just body art or medical tech\u2014it\u2019s a proto-interface, hinting at futures where interaction, sensing, and expression are literally under the skin.\u201d The blog is big on phrases like \u201cinteraction paradigms on skin\u201d\u2014a topic that seems to envisage a future wherein one could get \u201clocalized haptic cues\u201d and \u201cthermal feedback\u201d from touching someone\u2019s tattoo, which\u2026 the mind boggles\u2014but small on mentions of the artists who have created and applied tattoos for, y\u2019know, ever. In this sense, it embodies a trend that seems endemic in tech people, which is the combination of apparent respect for a given art form (in this case, tattoos) with complete disregard for the people who actually create that art form.<\/p>\n

In any case, the demographic that\u2019s currently most likely to be worried about CipherX\u2019s offerings is parents of impulsive teens\/pre-teens. Perhaps in deference to such concerns, while the company\u2019s tattoos can be ordered online, they can only be applied in person at the company\u2019s London store or one of its roving events \u201cso we can offer a guided experience.\u201d The company is pretty clear on its website that you need ID to prove you\u2019re over 18 before they\u2019ll tattoo you. The site is also clear that staff won\u2019t apply tattoos to the \u201chead, face, neck, hands, wrists, genitalia, elbows, anus, ankles [or] feet\u201d\u2014devastating news for anyone who wanted a smiley face on their asshole.<\/p>\n

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Anyway, CipherX\u2019s desire to keep these out of the hands of lovestruck kids, drunken frat boys, and men experiencing mid-life crises is laudable, but it also feels ultimately futile. This feels like one of those technologies that, sooner or later, will surface in budget, imperfectly imitated forms, resulting in a lot of chastised teens with face tattoos and a lot of very angry parents. The fact that CipherX\u2019s FAQ says that it doesn\u2019t ship tattoos \u201cat the moment\u201d suggests that perhaps they know this as well as anyone, and its representative apparently told The Verge that \u201cit\u2019s planning to sell kits that let you apply the tattoo yourself at home.\u201d All together now: what could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

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Concerned parents of the world, unite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nA London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos\u2014and It Wants to Do Mail Order - Long Haul Moving Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=1172\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos\u2014and It Wants to Do Mail Order - Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Concerned parents of the world, unite.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=1172\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T21:14:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"headline\":\"A London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos\u2014and It Wants to Do Mail Order\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T21:14:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172\"},\"wordCount\":875,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/887d1b7f1a20623fb53043ab0b2ed5fd.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=1172\",\"name\":\"A London Startup Is Selling Permanent Stick-On Tattoos\u2014and It Wants to Do Mail Order - 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