Tech Tats

Longtime PopSci contributing editor Phil Torrone would like to give your gadget a tattoo. Torrone, who also runs the  Make blog, and his pal Limor Fried just announced their new NYC-based laser-etching business, Adafruit.

What the heck is laser etching? Basically, it's a way of using a very fine-point laser to literally vaporize away a superthin layer of material from a surface, such as the back of your Powerbook ($100) or iPod ($30). Like your grandpa's Navy tat, it's permanent and monochrome, but because the laser is so precise, you can get finely detailed images and even simulate shading and gradients. Bring in your own image file, and they'll load it up and burn away.

The coolest part about Torrone's business is that it's all open source: following the belief that nothing is as innovative as a large, cooperative community of active participants, he and Fried will make available every bit of their business plan, from finances to operations, in order to help others start their own businesses. When you come to their store (etchings are by appointment only in New York), they'll explain to you how the etching is done and how you could do it yourself. They even let you push the "go" button.

In the years I've known Phil, he's consistently told me about the next hot thing (podcasts, online video sharing, Second Life, Roomba cockfighting) a year or more before anyone else. I'm not sure if laser etching is going to sweep the malls of middle America, but I'd bet the cost of an etched Zune that this isn't the last open-source business we see. --Mike Haney

Comments

[nick]

dam this is a great idea i really think i might get my ipod etched but i cant decide on what kind of picture i should put on it

[eric]

dude awesome idea i hope u bring it to canada too so i can watch my macbook pro get etched thats tight , why doesn't apple add this as a special feature for all their computers for you guys to etch stuff for people? would be a great partnership.

[Terry Lyons]

hmmm how do I get a franchise for the left coast? 8)

[Paul]

I think it's a sweet idea. I think that the stores or shops that have this process in them should be set up like a tech-tattoo parlor. I mean come on, the etching is like a tattoo, It's for life!