Wearables were all the rage a couple of years ago, but interest in the smart devices has slowed pace in recent months. Part of the reason may be because the tracking capacity of wearables are only matched by the batteries powering them. This is where a newly developed solution from Harvard and MIT comes into play.

Researchers from both institutions have created smart tattoo ink which can monitor health by changing colour. To that end, a person who are tatted up with the smart ink can tell if they're dehydrated or their blood sugar levels are rising depending on the colour of the tattoo. Powering this solution is biosensitive ink from the Harvard Medical School (HMS), which combined with traditional tattoo techniques could be the next wave in personal monitoring, according to the institutions.

“We were thinking: New technologies, what is the next generation after wearables?” noted Ali Yetisen, a postdoctoral fellow at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital. “And so we came up with the idea that we could incorporate biosensors in the skin. We wanted to go beyond what is available through wearables today," he added.

Whether or not these smart tattoos will become a fully fledged reality remains to be seen, but it's certainly an intriguing step forward for wearables. Check them out in the video below.