Pick Up Your Phone, Your Tattoo Is Vibrating

Hello, brave new world. Nokia may be working on an invention that would cause a tattoo to vibrate every time you get a call on your cell. The Finnish firm's filing with the US Patent Office describes tattooing, stamping, or spraying "ferromagnetic" material onto skin—or a fingernail—and linking it to a mobile device, reports the BBC. Vibrations could alert users to a variety of situations. "Examples of applications may be low battery indication, received message, received call, or calendar alert," all with different vibrations for each, notes the filing.

But watch out for Big Brother. The filing also indicates that such a marker could also be used as an identity check—a kind of electro-magnetic fingerprint—that could be read by your computer, for example, before it will allow you access ... or by security guards at a border crossing. (More tattoos stories.)