紋身藝術家打造可收聽的“聲波紋身”
紋身本來是一種視覺藝術，但是一名洛杉磯紋身技師偏偏想讓紋身“發出聲音”，而且想聽什麼都隨你定。一起來圍觀這種可以“收聽”的高科技紋身吧！
Tattoos have always been considered a visual medium, but thanks to an innovative blend of art and technology, you can now listen to your skin art by using a smartphone app. Be it the voice of a loved one, your favorite song or a motivational quote, you’ll be able to take it everywhere with you and listen to it anytime you like.
紋身一直以來都被視作一種視覺媒介，但因爲有了藝術和科技的創造性融合，現在你可以通過一款智能手機應用傾聽你皮膚上的這些藝術作品。無論是一段來自愛人的聲音、一首你最喜歡的歌或者是一段勵志名言，你都可以把它一直帶在身邊，隨時聆聽。
Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Nate Siggard came up with the idea for audible tattoos when two friends came in to get the opening line from Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” inked into their skin. The artist’s girlfriend casually said that it would be cool if you could actually listen to it, and her comment was apparently enough for Nate to pursue this seemingly crazy idea further.
納特•西嘉德是一位洛杉磯的紋身藝術家，他的兩位朋友找他把艾爾頓•約翰的《小小舞者》歌詞的第一句紋在身上，才讓他有了這個點子。納特的女朋友無意中說，如果這句歌詞能聽就太酷了。雖然納特的女朋友只是隨口一說，但這足以啓發納特將這個看似瘋狂的想法付諸實踐。
Siggard realized that there was a way to make sound come alive on someone’s skin, by tattooing the sound waves generated by a computer. He tried it out on himself first, inking the voice of his girlfriend and his baby and posting the result on Facebook. It went viral almost instantly, and people started bombarding him with questions and requests for their own soundwave tattoos. And that’s how Skin Motion, the company for tattoos that you can listen to was born.
西嘉德發現確實有一種方法可以讓皮膚髮出聲音，那就是把電腦生成的聲波圖做成紋身。他先在自己身上做實驗，把他女朋友和寶寶聲音的聲波圖紋在身上，然後在臉書上分享了成果。這個作品立刻在網上瘋狂傳播，人們開始不停地追問納特，並且也想製作自己的聲波紋身。於是，專門製作可以收聽紋身的Skin Motion公司應運而生。
So what’s the secret behind this innovative type of tattoos? Well, as I mentioned, it’s a blend of classic inking and technology. The Skin Motion website of mobile app allows people to generate a minute-worth of wave pattern of any sound they would like to have on their skin, be it a voice, a song, a dog barking, virtually anything. Once you have the pattern, you have to get it tattooed onto your skin by a certified Skin Motion artist, and 24 hours later, the company adds an overlay that gets picked up by your smartphone camera, allowing you to play your skin art whenever you want.
那麼，這款創意紋身生成的祕訣是什麼呢？就像之前提到的，這是傳統紋身和科技的結合。Skin Motion的手機應用網站能夠把人們想要紋在身上的聲音生成一段一分鐘的聲波圖，這段聲音可以是一句語音、一首歌、一聲狗吠，總之可以是任何聲音。獲得了聲波圖之後，你就可以讓經過資格認證的Skin Motion技師把它紋在皮膚上。24小時後，公司在紋身圖案上添加一層可由智能手機攝像頭獲取的圖層，然後你就可以隨時隨地收聽這段聲音了。
For now, the Skin Motion app is still in development, but will launch officially in June 2017. Founder Nate Siggard is currently focusing on building up a network of certified Skin Motion artists, and is partnering up with tattoo artists all around the world. They will be trained and authorized to perform “soundwave tattoos”.
目前，這款手機應用還在研發階段，將會在2017年6月正式發佈。創始人納特•西嘉德現在正與全球紋身藝術家合作，一起致力於創建一個經過資格認證的Skin Motion藝術家網絡。所有的紋身藝術家都將接受培訓，然後才能得到授權進行聲波紋身。
The technology used by Siggard doesn’t work as a general sound wave reader. It only works with Skin Motion designs right now, but the L.A. tattoo artist and his team are working on improving the technology to the point where it will be able to read any sound wave tattoo.
西嘉德採用的技術並不能讀取所有的聲波圖。目前他的手機應用只能讀取Skin Motion設計的聲波紋身。但是這位洛杉磯的紋身藝術家和他的團隊正在改進技術，希望未來的手機應用可以讀取所有聲波紋身。
