tattoo

When you go to Hawaii, do you slip into a tattoo parlor in order to engrave a permanent memento of your visit onto your, say, thigh?

I ask because T-Pain, the rapper who eats a little messily in a Toshiba laptop ad, seems to have become carried away on a recent trip to Hawaii.

It is not known why he chose to honor Facebook with a tattooed presence on his forearm. Perhaps someone in a hula skirt offered him a little Facebook love.

Helpfully, though, he tweeted a picture of his new armwork, so that his followers could, well, like … Read more

We're glad to have Jeff back from his brief hiatus last week, although we soon find out that he spent a lot of the time playing NHL 2K11 for the Wii! To celebrate the release of the game, 2K Sports made Jeff's dream a reality and invited a few journalists to play *actual* ice hockey with NHL Pros Travis Zajac and Ryan Kesler.

And in other Jeff-related news, today's show title is in reference to a tattoo he has in the works courtesy of Miss D'Jo of Lark Tattoo, a friend and listener of The 404! We're excited to see what she has in store for Jeff...we're hoping it's a 404 tattoo on his face.

While everyone else spent Saturday, September 11, in mourning and quiet reverence, Microsoft staged a mock funeral parade the day before to celebrate the passing of the BlackBerry and iPhone.

The low blow even featured mock pallbearers, a large iPhone casket, a hearse, and--for some reason--an impromptu group Thriller dance. We hate to even give Microsoft publicity for this poorly timed stunt, but it's worth it to show how far a company will go to get exposure and shut down competitors.

And as if Microsoft weren't already in trouble, Xbox Live's stringent censorship rules are under fire again, this time with regard to a person getting banned for listing "Fort Gay, WV" as his location in the player profile section. Microsoft's automated censorship bots believed the name of the city to be an individual trying to degrade the sexuality of other players, but it turns out that Fort Gay is indeed a location in West Virginia. After some complaints, the player contacted the chief of Xbox Live police, and the ban was lifted.

After the break, we're proposing some new transit rules of our own after we hear about the New Jersey Transit express trains testing a plan to silence talking altogether on the first and last trains. Granted, the plan doesn't appoint a hall monitor to seek out rule-breakers, but this doesn't seem like a half-bad idea. Tune in to hear our idea of a public transportation utopia!

We're in desperate need of good call-backs, so leave a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET and give us a piece of your mind! Also, big thanks to Alen for the BTTF Photoshop job you see up there; great work!

A few weeks ago, some friends and I won a trivia contest at a local bar. As a prize, we each got a gift card for Under the Needle, a tattoo shop in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. I had no tattoos at the time, but I figured this freebie was a sign. A few days later, I had a D&D-style 20-sided die etched onto the back of my right arm.

But I'm not the only nerd with tattoos. We had a feeling some of our Crave readers might also have some badass markings we could admire, … Read more

See that beauty to the right? That's my boss new D20 tattoo. It shows my love for D&D--for life.

And remember last week when I asked you, Crave readers, to send in your own geeky tattoos? No? I did. And you've sent in some highly awesome specimens that we can't wait to share. But we know there have to be even more of you with permanent graphical proof of your geek lives out there, so this is a last call.

In the next few days, we'll be posting a badass gallery of our readers' … Read more

I'm 34 years old and I just got my first tattoo. I'm the type who can change my mind easily, and I've always hesitated to get any work done because while I'd be like, "Check it out, boss!" for the first two weeks, I figured I'd regret it the third.

So I held out until I came up with something I would love forever. One of the things I'm into is old-school role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. So, with that in mind, I went down to Under the Needle in Seattle … Read more

Chemical engineers at MIT are designing carbon nanotubes that can be injected beneath the skin to reveal continuous blood glucose levels in real time. If it works, people with Type I diabetes may not have to prick their fingers multiple times a day to monitor their glucose levels.

Dubbed a "tattoo" that's designed to detect glucose, the nanotubes are wrapped in a polymer that is sensitive to glucose concentrations. A wearable device roughly the size of a wristwatch shines infrared light through the skin and onto the nanotubes, which fluoresce when in contact with glucose.

So it's really a tattoo in hiding. And at this point the sensor is estimated to have a shelf (or is it skin?) life of roughly six months.

But the team, which plans to start testing on animals soon, says that if the readings are accurate enough to pass the Clarke Error Grid analysis for glucose sensor accuracy, the system could revolutionize continuous glucose monitoring.

"The most problematic consequences of diabetes result from relatively short excursions of a person's blood sugar outside of the normal physiological range, following meals, for example," said Michael Strano, a professor at MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering. "If we can detect and prevent these excursions, we can go a long way toward reducing the devastating impact of this disease."… Read more

At this point, I've looked at sites that have given me the power to create fake hair, Wii-free Mii avatars, and one that did virtual makeup. Now it's time to try one that does fake tattoos. Is the human body a sacred thing? Yes, but certainly not on the Internet.

Meet Obsessive Ink, the latest site to create a "virtual you" that can be modified with realistic tattoos. It lets you see what you'd look like with a tattoo, given you put in enough effort to make its virtual avatars look like your own face … Read more

There will be no episode of Gadgettes this week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the US. So, have a listen to a classic episode from the Gadgettes archive. Remember to read this entire blog post in your own "hot breath" voice for the full effect. Go ahead. You know you want to. Enjoy!

Robotic snake surgeon tinkers with your heart via your mouth

Power Shirt charges gadgets as you walk

Ergoskin: Underwear that makes you sit up straight

Remember Ring (Thanks, David!)

The Body-laptop interface is knitted from Thneed which nobody, Nobody, NOBODY needs

3D Tattoo is like a secret between you and people with funny glasses

Giant mouth exhibit is just one stop on a gross, informative journey… Read more

After playing peek-a-boo for the past few weeks, HTC officially introduced its latest Google Android handset on Tuesday, the HTC Tattoo.

Formerly known as the HTC Click, the Tattoo, we presume, gets it name from the customization options it offers and is being advertised as an Android phone for all. It's the second phone from the company, after the HTC Hero, to use the HTC Sense user interface, which provides up to seven home screen panels that can be personalized with various widgets, shortcuts, and wallpapers.

The phone itself is pretty compact at 4.17 inches tall by 2.… Read more