Tattoos cause more pain than ordinary shots, Martin Müller admits. But because tattoo needles cause more cellular damage, they also create more surface area for vaccines to seep in.
Tattoos are far more effective at generating antibodies than the old needle-and-plunger, Müller reports in the journal, Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.
The journal’s editors suggest the tattoo will work best for routine cattle vaccinations, and the injection of therapeutic DNA vaccines (i.e., the direct injection of genes) into humans.
But the tattoos might also help public health officials sort the vaccinated from the potentially contagious in a pandemic.
