UNM students take tattoo project to BioDesign Challenge

Two students from The University of New Mexico recently took part in the BioDesign Challenge in New York City with a project that examines the history and future of tattooing. UNM teams have participated in the challenge in years past with a variety of projects including smart acequias monitoring and eco-friendly, recyclable, organic fabrics of the future.

The Biodesign Challenge is an international education program for college students that introduces the intersection of biotechnology, art, and design and connects them to a global network of leaders in academia, industry, and entrepreneurship who are defining the field of biodesign. BDC aims to pioneer, envision, create, and critique transformational applications in biotech.

This year's UNM team of Jeanie Seaver and Aili Wiggins studied with Professor of Art and Associated Professor of Computer Science Andrea Polli and adjunct faculty member Amy Pilling.

"Each year in the spring semester, UNM students across disciplines enrolled in the Bio Art and Design course develop a project for the international Biodesign Challenge(BDC), Polli explained. At the end of the semester, a jury of faculty and other experts review all the student projects and choose one to compete in the BDC held in New York City.

"Our UNM student team presents their work alongside about 50 other teams from all over the world. They also get to hear presentations from BDC alumni who have created companies with their projects and from professionals in the field of biodesign. It's a great learning experience when students meet their colleagues from other universities," Polli noted.

The UNM team'sproject is called Lo-TEK-tat, which "traces 5,000 years of tattoo history to inform a DIY and bio-active approach to tattooing that explores the potential for alteration of biochemical identity. The project, part practical and part speculative, first addresses toxic substances in tattoo ink and then imagines a future where the addition of plant-derived estrogen generates deeper physiological meaning."

Seaver graduated this spring with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture. Wiggins also graduated with a degree in Architecture and a Certificate in Interdisciplinary Design.

"Lo-TEK-tat is a borrowed term and is an acronym for 'local Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge,'" Seaver said. "In the technology-heavy world of bio-design and biotech, our project acknowledges Indigenous people as the original bio-designers. In short, the project was all about re-imagining the practice of tattooing in western countries − where tattoos exist in a shallow cultural context because they were largely appropriated from Indigenous cultures in the 20th century."

Seaver explained that the team first studied Indigenous tattoo traditions in the western U.S. and at newly emerging scientific studies that link tattoos with cancer.

"We addressed the toxic ingredients in tattoo ink by making it at home, first foraging blackberries and then precipitating the blackberry dye onto calcium carbonate particles to make a lightfast, food-grade pigment. At the same time, I was also growing SCOBY(another UNM BioDesign project from 2021) at home, which I would then dry to skin-like texture and use as practice skin," Seaver said. "Our research showed us that all tattoo ink is bio-active, and it's clear that Indigenous cultures also understood this. So, for the last part of the project, we imagined a future where phytoestrogen was extracted from soybean plants and used as a tattoo ink additive, as a means of intentionally changing biochemistry or shifting gender identity."  

Lo-TEK-tat started out as Seaver's solo project but when it was selected to go to the BioDesignChallenge, Wiggins, whose project was the runner-up joined the project. The BioDesign projects are mentored by Pilling, a part-time Art faculty member and lab professor.

"Amy Pilling did a great job exposing us to so many different forms of bio-art, and the myriad ethnical considerations that come with some boundary pushing art," Seaver said.

"The BioDesign Challenge was the most fun I've ever had in an academic setting," Seaver enthused. "We were so busy running around trying to get our little gallery exhibition set up and preparing for our presentation, but it gave us a little taste of what I imagine it's like to work in Manhattan. We met so many brilliant young designers, and watched countless stimulating presentations, it was the perfect way to close out my time at UNM."

Among the lessons learned preparing and participatingin the BDC, Seaver said, was that "the power of strong verbal presentation can't be understated. Admittedly I'm not the best public speaker, but I learned for the future that verbal communication is just as important as how eloquently we write, or how compelling our visuals are." 

Seaver is now hunting for employment in the field of architecture.

"But I have such a keen interest in art and design that I'd like to find something that somehow does all three. Also doing more tattoos! I'm still learning but I'm excited to poke more people," Seaver continued. 

Seaver said the most common question they get about the project is if she has tattooed herself with the Lo-TEK-tat ink.

"Definitely not! A lot of the work for this project was done very quickly to hit deadlines, so doing things with proper sterility in mind was simply not of concern. In the future, I'd love to continue developing the project and address these kinds of issues. It seems like there's a community of people out there who want their tattoo practice to honor Indigenous traditions, while also making sure they're not putting their clients at risk. So, tattoo ink seems to a place where Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge can exist in harmony."

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