Tattoos are about to become a lot more than an aesthetic choice. There are new reports of face tattoo wearables that will be able to detect signs of stress by studying the brain, allowing the user to use these electronic sensors placed on their skin to understand themselves better. There is considerable research being done on new face wearables that could help detect mental load and allow the user to take pre-emptive measures to handle the stress rather than succumb to it at an inopportune time.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a face e-tattoo that can be placed on the forehead and allow the ink to interpret brainwaves in order to understand the general mental state of the user. At the moment, the wearable doesn’t necessarily look like something you can slap on and go about your day without drawing some attention, but it does bring us one step closer to a new generation of wearables.
A New Face Tattoo Wearable Is Being Developed to Help Detect Mental Stress
Face tattoos aren’t as common as tattoos on other areas of the body, but there’s a good reason why this e-tattoo stress detection setup goes on your forehead and down the sides of the face. Designed to look like a temporary tattoo made up of squiggles, the new invention acts like an electroencephalography (EEG) and electrooculography (EOG) machine in order to pick up brain activity directly and understand different areas of the brain while also picking up some degree of eye movement.
The tattoo-esque skin-like sensor has a wireless battery attached to it, further taking us out of the “tattoo” realm and bringing us into one of technology. Unlike a typical tattoo, these don’t have to be permanent, presenting an added advantage of drawing a line with a wearable you can still take off rather than embed in your body.
How Does the Face E-Tattoo Help with Stress Detection?
The wearable face tattoo can detect changes in the alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves, which can be interpreted by researchers to understand how the brain is functioning. Pair that with an app or program to constantly interpret the wave, and you could have a device that you use to understand your own brain activity better.
During the testing of this real-time face tracker, researchers asked participants to complete a memory task with the tattoo equipped. They were then able to assess the pattern of theta and delta waves as the task grew in complexity, while the decline in alpha and beta waves indicated some degree of brain fatigue. This provided them with insights into the strain on the brain and general tiredness, and the potential for tracking other activities of greater complexity.
Beating burnout: Scientists created an electronic tattoo that reads mental state via brain signals and eye movements. It can remind you to rest after stress — but for now, it only works on the forehead. Would you try it? pic.twitter.com/zI7RhPofZd
— Evgenii Tyrnov (@ETyrnov) June 3, 2025
Not only does the electronic face sensor provide an estimate of the mental strain, but it also helps pick up the signs before the users experience fatigue. This is why the researchers believe it could be very useful for people in more intense job settings like aviation and machine operations, as they require intense focus and have chilling consequences when the attention is lost. If available for more widespread use, such devices could help people switch over with a colleague or conduct activities to bring the strain under control, saving themselves a lot of unnecessary mental loads.
Is the Face E-Tattoo Opening Us Up to a New Era of Wearables?
“Over the years, we developed a series of non-invasive skin conformable e-tattoos to measure cardiovascular health, then measure the mental stress from the palm sweating,” Nanshu Lu, a professor in the university’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, told Business Insider. “Now, finally, we move on to the brainwave.” The face e-tattoo for stress detection is not the first instance of a skin-based detector or even an EEG machine, but it does shrink down the technology to be a lot more affordable, practical, and usable in a variety of contexts.
In the last decade, it has become increasingly common for individuals to track health metrics using smartwatches with advanced sensors, and in the last few years, smart rings and chest-strapped heart-rate monitors have also gained common use. It appears that many are growing more health-conscious, or health-aware at the least, and there’s a growing demand for better assessment devices for varying niche measurements.
Devices such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink are advancing what is possible with the study of the brain, opening up closed doors for users with limited limb functionality, which is heartening to see. The optics look great, even if the concept of a brain chip does evoke some discomfort by bringing up questions of privacy, control, and consent.
We’re Excited to See More of the Tattoo Stress Sensor
Not everyone will be interested in a face tattoo to track their mental stress, but if the battery could be hidden away more discreetly and the processing done in real time, particularly with the help of AI, there could be a market of users interested in trying it out. We’ve grown more comfortable with visible use of colostomy bags and continuous glucose monitors (CGM) as aids that people rely on to get through their day.
If mental health is eventually given equal importance, there might be room to add this health tracker into the mix of visible trackers and daily aids as well. The wearable face sensor for stress detection is not quite ready to facilitate this future, but it is a hopeful step in the right direction.
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