A unit for supplying ink to the needles of a tattooing device includes a handling unit, in which the following can be found: a grip; a removable tip provided at one end with one or more tattooing needles; a coupling element configured to connect the grip and the tip to each other; a driver operatively associated with the grip to move the needles by imparting a reciprocating rectilinear motion to them; one or more tanks for containing the ink, operatively associated with the handling unit. The ink supply unit includes an air movement unit driven by the driver and mechanically connected to the handling unit. The air movement unit is configured to push the air moved by the driver toward the tank, the tank for containing the ink communicating with the air movement unit by a valve. Once conveyed into the tank by the valve, the air forces the ink to be dispensed from the tank onto the needles.

Embodiments of an actuating device for actuating a needle cartridge and puncturing an epidermis with controlled depth. The actuating device includes a motor housed in a motor housing, an actuating rod driven by the motor and configured to actuate in a reciprocating motion, and an adjustment mechanism. The actuating rod is housed in a rod housing, the rod housing forming a device aperture configured to receive a needle cartridge and to attach to the needle cartridge. The adjustment mechanism interfaces with the rod housing and is configured to adjust a position of the rod housing relative to the motor housing while not rotating the rod housing relative to the motor housing.

A corneal injection needle is disclosed. The corneal injection needle includes a shaft, a housing, and a stop feature for controlling the depth of the needle penetration. The needle is capable of delivering precise amounts of injectable material to the cornea with low leakage rates to off-target areas and less corneal damage compared to conventional needles.

An automatic tattoo apparatus can be used to robotically apply tattoos. A customer can shop on an online tattoo marketplace to select designs created by various artists located anywhere. The online tattoo marketplace can process and manage payments, artist and/or customer profiles, bookings, tattoo design uploads, browsing and design selection, design changes, and/or perform other actions. The automatic tattoo device can apply tattoos precisely, quickly, and may with reduced pain. The tattoo apparatus can apply a wide range of different types of tattoos, including but not limited to micro tattoos, dotwork, blackwork tattoos, realism tattoos, fine-line tattoos, etc.

Provided herein are devices and methods used to produce tattoo biosensors that are based on spatially controlled intracutaneous gene delivery of optical reporters driven by specific transcription factor pathways for a given cytokine or other analyte. The biosensors can be specific to a given analyte, or more generically represent the convergence of several cytokines into commonly shared intracellular transcription factor pathways. These biosensors can be delivered as an array in order to monitor multiple cytokines. Biosensor redeployment can enable chronic monitoring from months to years. The tattooed biosensor array of the present invention includes endogenous reporter cells, naturally tuned to each patient's own biology and can be used to reliably measure the state of a patient in real-time.

Disclosed herein is a consumable cartridge removably attachable to an animal marking apparatus. The consumable cartridge comprises a movably mounted needle and a biasing element operatively coupled to the movably mounted needle to withdraw the needle to a withdrawn position. Also disclosed herein is a method for marking an animal.

Metered dispensing of a microfluidic amount of fluid from a reservoir comprises a pressure device which applies a discharge pressure for fluid ejection via a discharge line through a valve arrangement. The valve device has a first valve with a minimum closing time and a second valve with a minimum opening time. A control device provides control signals for operation for metered dispensing of the amount of fluid as follows: a shortened minimum opening time for freeing the discharge line for the fluid flow, which time is shorter than the minimum opening time of the second valve; and a shortened minimum closing time for closing the discharge line for the fluid flow, which time is shorter than the minimum closing time of the first valve. Furthermore, a hand-held device for locally piercing human or animal skin is disclosed.

A tattoo needle structure is provided. A tattoo needle has a plurality of needle tips, an ink holding space is formed by the arrangement of the needle tips, and a multi-component alloy film is deposited on each needle tip of the tattoo needle by sputtering technology, so that when the tattoo needle is dipped into the tattoo ink, the tattoo ink does not stick to the surface of the multi-component alloy film by the hydrophobic property of the multi-component alloy film, and the tattoo ink is contained in the ink holding space by the cohesive property of the tattoo ink. Thus, when the tattoo needle is dipped into the tattoo ink and the tattoo process is performed, the dyeing area of the skin with the tattoo ink is the cross-sectional area of the ink holding space, thereby achieving the technical effect of improving the contouring resolution of a tattoo.

Embodiments of an actuating device for actuating a needle cartridge and puncturing an epidermis with controlled depth. The actuating device includes a motor housed in a motor housing, an actuating rod driven by the motor and configured to actuate in a reciprocating motion, and an adjustment mechanism. The actuating rod is housed in a rod housing, the rod housing forming a device aperture configured to receive a needle cartridge and to attach to the needle cartridge. The adjustment mechanism interfaces with the rod housing and is configured to adjust a position of the rod housing relative to the motor housing while not rotating the rod housing relative to the motor housing.

A tattoo machine control system comprises a holding arrangement (1) for storing tattoo needle cartridges (3) for the moment not attached to a tattoo machine and a tattoo machine controller configured to 5 control a tattoo machine based on a tattoo machine setting. The holding arrangement (1) has a plurality of slots, each slot (13) being arranged for receiving a respective tattoo needle cartridge (3). The system is configured to maintain an association of a tattoo machine setting for said tattoo machine with a slot (13) 10 of said plurality of slots. The tattooing process is made more efficient.