Augmented Reality Tattoos with InkHunter

Author: Dima Titov

InkHunter: the unique augmented reality app to design tattoos.

Using this application, you can see a tattoo on your body via your smartphone screen. See tattoos in real time from different perspectives.

How does AR tattoo work?

To mark the spot on your body where you want the tattoo, draw a square smile. Drawing a square smile enables changing the picture perspective while moving. Then choose a tattoo. Tattoo galleries contain myriad sketches with different designs in: skulls, ornaments, characters, etc. Or, choose one from the menu, “Photo”, and download it. To make tattoos more realistic, choose from a variety of functions like opacity, contrast and filters. When you move the sliders, you can see how your tattoo will look in several years. Voilà! Your tattoo almost looks real. Take a picture and share it with your friends!

Statistics

The InkHunter app was created by students of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine. In May 2015, they released InkHunter 1.0. But the app only became popular almost one year later, at the beginning of April 2016, with InkHunter 2.1. InkHunter skyrocketed in popularity in 40 countries with no marketing costs. It was downloaded by more than 1.5 million people. Media resources—on both local and global levels—published information about the app release. These include TechCrunch, Mashable, HuffingtonPost, HighSnobiety, DailyMail, Yahoo, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and many more.

InkHunter developed its business model. Now the application has paid content. This includes paid advertisements for tattoo masters. They pay a 5-10% commission fee when users either book a tattoo or a fixed CPC for temporary tattoo services.