Watch: augmented reality codes being integrated into tattoos

(2011 YouTube, LLC)

From editorial content in magazines to billboard campaigns, so-called QR codes have been used in any imagineable way in the fashion and beauty industry, but carrying one on your own body? It's possible, thanks to Paris-based tattoo artist Karl Marc.

Brave Frenchman Marco apparently wanted a tattoo more variable than the name of a current loved one - after all, the code can link to anything on the web - getting the pixels inked onto his chest, surrounded by a rose design.

Documented in a YouTube video, the code prompted an animated movie to play back on a smartphone once completed. Watch it unfold at http://youtu.be/f3qv2dSXQXk from around 2:00.

But that's not all the interactivity involved in this project: the tattooing session by K.A.R.L., as he is known in his field, was streamed live on Facebook, allowing users to comment and influence the design - part of a campaign by whisky brand Ballantine's (a potentially questionable sponsor of tattoos) that allows you to "go into" the mind of creatives and participate in their works.

For everyone who is interested in getting a similar tattoo: pay attention! According to Fast Company's design editors, Marco's code wasn't a "true" QR code, but rather a simpler EZ code, designed to be read with an app called ScanLife. "The code must be done quite large in order to provide room for the artist to apply it correctly," Karl Marc said. "A true QR code would have to be at least 10 cm wide to work properly, and not many clients want a tattoo of a QR code that large!"

Find out more about the tattoo artist, who works at the Mystery Tattoo Club in Paris, at http://www.karlmarc.com.

For more creative projects of the Ballantine's campaign, visit https://www.facebook.com/ballantines.