A Los Angeles tattoo artist has created tattoos you can hear

One tattoo artist is turning the visual art into an audio medium as well having created inkwork that you can listen to.

LA-based tattooist Nate Siggard has built what he calls soundwave tattoos that use a companion app to turn audio recordings customers make into soundwave patterns which can then be inked on to skin.

This pattern is then given an overlay which can be read by your smartphone camera and the device then plays back the audio, enabling users to “listen” to their tattoo.

Siggard has already demonstrated the technology by creating a soundwave tattoo of his girlfriend saying “I love you” and their baby gurgling.

He has now created his own company based around the technology – Skin Motion – and plans to work with tattoo artists around the world to create soundwave designs, certifying them in the process as Skin Motion artists.

The Skin Motion app is set to launch next month.

Siggard said the idea was first put to him by his girlfriend after two friends had the opening line of Elton John’s Tiny Dancer tattooed on themselves, and she pointed out how “cool” it would be to be able to “hear” the inkwork.