The signs have been there for a while. Phones went from being tethered to your wall to fitting in your back pocket. Computers went from desks to laps. Headphones went from over the ear to inside the ear. If there’s a trend in technology, it is this: Go small. Smaller still. Even smaller than that. Devices may start disappearing altogether. In fact, in the very near future, because of microchipping, our technology will — literally — be part of our skin.

It starts with the microchip. Your pet probably already has one, but the technology has very different applications for Tuesday the Cat than it does for humans. Pets’ microchips help identify them if they get lost. For us, microchips will make life more convenient. The Swedish incubator Epicenter began microchipping its employees in 2015 — not to track bathroom breaks or productivity but to give them the power to operate printers and more. The tiny, grain-of-rice-size RFID (radio frequency identification) chip opens doors with a wave of your hand in front of a chip reader. And at Pause Fest, an Australian tech expo, 10 VIPs volunteered to swap paper tickets for implanted-­microchip ones. Imagine an internal key fob.

In the very near future, our technology will literally be part of our skin.

The RFID chip isn’t the only technology being used. Grindhouse Wetware, a biohacking start-up in Pittsburgh, is experimenting with powered implants: The RFID chip is powered by the device it interacts with, like the card scanner on your office door, while the implants are powered internally by a battery. Cofounder Tim Cannon inserted a monitor slightly smaller than a stack of credit cards into his forearm that would read his temperature and, through Bluetooth, transmit that information to his Android. The monitor, called Circadia, can be used to control a Bluetooth thermostat or to call an ambulance if Cannon’s temperature spikes or drops too suddenly. “This was to prove that we could design and implant a subdermal device in the body for nonmedical purposes,” says Ryan O’Shea, a spokesperson for Grindhouse Wetware. “We’re looking at what abilities humans could have evolved to have biologically but didn’t,” he says, pausing. “Like bioluminescence.”

This is where skin technology meets cosmetics. “There’s a green LED light on the Circadia that we put there for purely practical purposes: to tell if the device was connected to Bluetooth,” O’Shea says. “But the light kind of backlit a tattoo on his arm, and people got very excited.” That led to the development of Northstar, a device that sits under the skin on the top of your hand and lights up in the shape of a red star. And that’s all there is to it. Aesthetics. “Version two of this device will include gesture recognition. You can gesture with your hands and kick off a reaction, like starting your car, locking your doors, or turning your lights on,” says O’Shea.

We’re looking at what abilities humans could have evolved to have biologically but didn’t, like bioluminescence.

For Grindhouse Wetware, technology as a form of fashionable expression was a happy accident. For others, like MIT Media Lab researcher and DuoSkin lead researcher Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, it stemmed — as most good things do — from Beyoncé. “A few years ago, I was flipping through a fashion magazine and saw that Beyoncé had these cool metallic temporary tattoos. Me, the geeky engineer that I am, thought, Oh, my God, are these conductive?” They weren’t, of course. So Kao and her team, in collaboration with Microsoft, created DuoSkin, a jewelry-­like temporary tattoo design that adheres to your skin for up to three days and uses conductive energy to interact with other devices. Slide your finger along the design to use it as a trackpad for your phone. Scan it with your phone to read encoded information. Designer Christopher Bevans used Kao’s technology for his 2017 menswear show: Models wore DuoSkin while they walked around the room, and audience members could scan them to find out more about the clothes they were wearing.