Google is often dabbling in one smart technology or another and now it seems the company is working on smart tattoos. 

Known as "SkinMarks" these intelligent tattoos are designed to be rubbed onto curved parts of your body (knuckles for example) and used as a touchpad.

CNET reports that these smart tattoos could then be used as a tap interface, with swipe gestures and natural, instinctive hand movements. 

The research into wearable smart controls has been going on for a while. In fact, the researchers wrote a white paper back in 2017 on how our fine motor skills could make such an interface more intuitive to use and naturally easier to engage with, even to the point of doing so without looking. 

This technical wizardry is done using conductive ink and tattoo paper that is then thermal-cured and applied to the body. It's currently being worked on at Saarland University in Germany with funding from Google. If we'll ever see it implemented in the real world remains to be seen, but this project is one of several that Google is actively engaged in when it comes to new smart technology.

The company also has fingers in other pies too. 1D Eyewear, for example, that's a subtler version of Google Glass with a conventional eyewear look and feel.

A wearable interface for virtual reality known as Grabity which allows you to more realistically feel things you're picking up or touching in virtual reality

There's also SmartSleeve, a wearable material with pressure-sensitive sensors that can detect gestures, movement and more. 

All point to an interesting future for technology and the way we interact with our world.