Kidney Foundation Launches Tattoo Parlour at SXSW

With the launch of SXSW today, many marketers are expecting wearable tech to emerge as one of the festival’s key takeaways, which would explain why The National Kidney Foundation has unveiled a tattoo parlour with a difference.

The Heart Your Kidneys initiative, launched by Y&R, Berlin Cameron and Cohn and Wolfe, sister companies in the WPP infrastructure, will fit smart tattoo patches on festival attendees that monitor kidney health.

Each design will respond to the wearer’s sweat and calculate their hydration levels, through analyzing sodium and potassium levels.

Celebrity inker Tommy Helm has created temporary and permanent tattoo designs, which have been distributed to kidney donors ahead of the parlour’s launch and in time with National Kidney Day, which was yesterday.

The campaign is being rolled out to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease – which affects 26 million Americans – and encourage citizens to keep a tab on their organs.

So if you’re headed to SXSW, be sure to stop by the parlous and get tatted up… it’s for a good cause!