Inkjet-printed drug-loaded temporary tattoos for personalized pediatric pain treatment

Parents worldwide suffer from their children's frequent refusal to take their medicine - even creams and patches may be refused due to tedious application, painful removal, and caprice. However, children find decorative tattoos appealing. Hence, a personalized drug-loaded temporary tattoo as a novel pediatric dosage form is presented. As a showcase, a pain treatment prototype tattoo based on a lidocaine/prilocaine eutectic was developed. By employing piezoelectric inkjet printing of the drug onto a decorative motif, which can be chosen based on the child's personal preference, the drug content was tailored via variations in the number of deposited layers. To ensure the correct dispensed drug content, non-destructive near-infrared hyperspectral imaging was used and a linear correlation model covering drug doses ranging from 0 to 25 mg cm^-2 (R² 0.9925) was established. The drug-loaded tattoos were easily transferred onto the skin and revealed suitable ex-vivo drug permeation into human skin with 0.69 and 0.78 µg·g^-1 lidocaine and prilocaine found in the upper dermis after only 30 min. In a nutshell, we hereby introduce a well-controllable and highly acceptable pediatric treatment alternative based on a low-cost additive manufacturing technology.