Sound motion tattoos come to Pocatello

Many people get tattoos because it’s a permanent way to keep a meaningful image with them. But what if you could add a voice to it too?

That’s what a tattoo shop in Pocatello now offers, thanks to one local woman who was determined to get a special tattoo.

Cameron Willson said she loves her new tattoos. But they aren’t just regular tattoos – they are sound motion tattoos. Instead of preserving a memory with a picture on your skin, you can add sound to it too.

Willson said the process was fairly straight forward.

“You have to sign up and get the app on your phone,” Willson said. “When you upload your MP3 at the site, they will present you with a sound wave of it. Now you can adjust the sound wave a little bit but essentially the MP3 is associated with that particular sound wave.”

Once it’s done, open the app on your phone, hold your phone to your tattoo and the audio recording will play.

“It’s someone I admire very much saying, ‘Thank you Glamberts I love you,'” Willson described her tattoo.

Willson said these types of tattoos are becoming more and more common and when she saw them, she had to find a way to get one – or two.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for a lot of people to preserve memories and the voices of their loved ones,” she said.

“I think they’re pretty neat,” said Juan Soltero, the tattoo artist who does sound motion tattoos at Salty’s Ink in Pocatello. “I wouldn’t mind having one. Capture memories – you know, if you got an old voicemail from a loved one that’s passed away, or your mother or something saying that I love you, your kids saying that I love you or even your dog barking….you can have it turned into a sound wave file and you can play it.”

Willson said she started searching for a certified artist to do the sound wave tattoo and couldn’t find one within a 300-mile radius. She eventually convinced Soltero to become certified. The cost to activate the MP3 file through the app is $39.95 plus the cost of the tattoo itself.