Frequently Asked Questions

The simple answer: Skin Motion takes your audio, creates a Soundwave stencil that youcan take to get tattooed. Once it's tattooed you upload a picture to our website and we activate your tattoo to play back with the Skin Motion app.

The technical answer: a combination of audio processing, image recognition, computer vision, and cloud computing on top of a custom built proprietary platform to create a mixed reality experience.

Upload your audio file on our website using a computer. Uploading from mobile is not currently supported, and will be coming soon.

As long as the shape of the Soundwave stencil that is created by the Skin Motion website exists within the design you can add elements around or inside it. The Soundwave shape must be easily recognizable in order to playback properly.

Examples include: filling the Soundwave shape in with a color or design, leaving the inside of the Soundwave empty so that it is only an outline, putting design elements around the outside of Soundwave outline.

Assuming you own the copyright (see question above), Most modern music has been compressed and maximized in a process called Mastering that attempts increase the volume of quiet parts of a song and decrease the louder parts. While this makes music sound louder coming from a cell phone or laptop speaker, t means the Soundwave does not have the "peaks and valley" that older music, or audio recorded of a person talking may have. The "peaks and valleys" are what make the Soundwave Tattoo so interesting to play back, and it is for this reason we do not recommend getting a Soundwave Tattoo of commercially produced music.

Soundwave Tattoos need to be on a flat surface, and can not curve around body parts. Because the human body is 3D and not flat, this makes the placement of a Soundwave Tattoo very important! We recommend the inner-forearm as the best place, but in general legs and arms with the Soundwave placed so that the long edge of the stencil is placed along the body part so that it does not curve. Curved Soundwave Tattoos will not work.

The tattoo should be the appropriate size so that the camera on your phone can see it while you are in a comfortable position. If you hold your phone where you want to hold it comfortably while playing the tattoo back with the camera on your phone open you can see where the tattoo should go and how big it should be.

Some people have chosen to get them where they can't hold their phone or got them so large that they can not hold their phone comfortably to play the tattoo back with the Skin Motion app, and have had to ask others to hold their phone for them. It's your tattoo and you're free to do what you wish, but we recommend the Soundwave in the tattoo is no larger than 6 inches or 150mm.

There is a certain tolerance to hair that the app will allow for thin or light hair. For thicker hair or very hairy areas the app will not work properly. The app needs to be able to see the tattoo more than it sees the hair. For this reason, we only recommend getting a Soundwave Tattoo™ in an area where there is minimal, thin or light colored hair or removing any hair hat grows over it.

Our patented platform is engineered using modular components such that everything is interchangeable. The frequency that new api's, frameworks, codecs and devices are coming out means that by preserving our users' data, we will be able to deliver it through the most advanced distribution channels and interfaces as augmented reality technology advances.

Want more than one Soundwave Tattoo? That's great! Just make sure they are far enough apart so that they don't both show when using the camera in the Skin Motion app for playback. As long as they are not near each other, each one should play back.

The cost of the tattoo procedure is determined by and paid to a tattoo artist from our Tattoo Artist Directory. The cost to "Activate" a Soundwave tattoo so that it can be played back using the Skin Motion app is a one-time payment of $39.99 and $14.99 each year after to keep it activated. Your yearly subscription starts when you pay to activate your tattoo, and the card you use is stored securely by our payment processor Stripe to use to pay the subscription cost each year. We offer a 100% money-back guarantee on the Soundwave Tattoo "Activation" within 15 days after activation is complete when you go to a licensed Skin Motion tattoo artist.

Potentially, as long as you upload the original audio file used to generate the Soundwave for your tattoo. Pre-existing tattoos that are activated with the Skin Motion app are not guaranteed to work, and do not qualify for our 15 day guarantee policy.

If these steps did not resolve the issue we would be happy to look into the problem and do whatever we can to remedy the issue. We have a very good record of resolving issues for customers who have followed the instructions we provide and go to a Skin Motion licensed Tattoo Artist. Your satisfaction is our highest priority. If you have any questions, please login to your account and contact our Support team here. If you have not heard back from our support team within 48 hours please check your spam folder.

Soundwave tattoo activation is done on the Skin Motion website. You must use a computer for step 1 through 4. As you go through this process, each step is explained to you. Here is the process from start to finish.

When activating a Soundwave Tattoo you can enter the secret-key provided by a licensed tattoo artist from the Skin Motion Tattoo Artist Directory to receive a 15 day money-back satisfaction guarantee on the cost of your activation purchase.

Artist can set their own secret key on their artist Profile page.

Vouchers are an alternative way to activate a Soundwave Tattoo. Vouchers were pre-sold prior to our launch, and are given to winners of contests and promotions.

A Voucher can be transfered to another Skin Motion user on the Vouchers page within the My Account section of the website by entering the users email address. The recipient will receive an email from Skin Motion with a link to claim the voucher and complete the transfer.

If you have a voucher it can be used for your Soundwave Tattoo activation. When you get to the purchase page in the Soundwave Tattoo activation process you will see a section that says "You have a Voucher" and a special button that will let you checkout with your voucher.

Paying with a voucher is only good for the cost of the Soundwave Tattoo activation, and will require you to sign up for yearly service after the first year for $14.99.

Soundwave Tattoo Activation can take up to 24-48 hours but the average wait is 12 hours.

In the event that a Soundwave Tattoo has an issue that can not be resolved using our troubleshooting guide, it is possible to re-activate the tattoo. As tattoos age and the skin grows back over them they can change a lot. The first month after getting a tattoo is when you will see the most change. Over time the aging will cause the skin to lose "resolution" as far as how much little detail it will hold. Exposure to the sun increases this decline in quality as well.

Because Soundwave Tattoos are a relatively new technology and we have not proven exactly what will happen over the lifetime of the tattoo. However, we have a done a lot of research that shows for most people a Soundwave Tattoo will be able to be re-activated and play as long as the tattoo remains detailed enough for the image recognition algorithms to work properly and should last well into the 60's or 70's of a healthy person

Find an artist to do your Soundwave Tattoo that knows how to do it correctly and is licensed by Skin Motion by searching our Artist directory or ask your preferred tattoo artist to apply. Artists can apply for free and registration takes less than ten minutes and incudes a short training video.

The Artist Directory is a searchable map of the Earth that shows where you can a licensed Skin Motion Tattoo Artist. You can search by entering your zip code.

Tattoo Artists are our partners on every Soundwave Tattoo. As a Tattooer owned company, Skin Motion has designed our service around the needs of our artists. Tattoo artists can apply to register to become a licensed Skin Motion artist. Registration is free for artists. Every artist must watch a short training video and pass a quiz about the correct way to create a Soundwave Tattoo so that it will playback with the Skin Motion app.

The current Skin Motion Tattoo Artist License can be found here.

Skin Motion licensed Tattoo Artists are required to follow our Marketing Guide.

Artists should follow all of the instructions in the Tattoo Artist Training Guide.

Any Tattoo Artist who is practicing unprofessional behavior, is not offering Soundwave tattoos, or is otherwise violating Skin Motion Tatto Artist license needs to be reported to Skin Motion support team immediately. We take all reports of inapropriate behavior very seriously. Any tattoo artist found to be violating our policies will immidiately be removed from the tattoo artist directory and have their Skin Motion account and any Soundwave Tattoos on their account deactivated. Report an artist

Skin Motion platform consist of the Skin Motion website and the Skin Motion mobile phone app. The Skin Motion mobile phone app is available for iOS App Store and Google Play and is free to download and try yourself with the examples here.