Over the centuries, Bible scholars have pondered about the Mark of the Beast that the Apostle John mentioned in his vision of the end times written down in the Book of Revelation.

He saw that people were forced to take a mark on their hand or forehead and without it, they would be unable to buy or sell. John stated that the mark of the beast revealed an individual’s support of the anti-Christ regime.

“It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Revelation 13: 16-17 (NIV)

Some have suggested that this mark was simply a symbolic identification with the satanic realm, while others believe it was a literal mark revealing a person’s support.

The emergence of a temporary high tech tattoo created by researchers at Penn State University may indicate how close we are to the latter.

The temporary tattoo reported in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, would have actual circuitry embedded in it, allowing the tattoo to monitor a person’s health including temperature and oxygen levels.

In the past, the biggest hindrance to this type of circuitry being attached to human skin is that it required a tremendous amount of heat. However, the group of engineers came up with a system where the tattoo’s sensors would painlessly be embedded into the skin at room temperature.

The tattoo is so unobtrusive they could easily be attached to the skin of the elderly and even babies.

Of course, as several have noted, though the device is intended to provide health benefits, it could undoubtedly be extended to other uses.

Personally, I have trouble seeing how people would want such a tattoo put on their forehead. But maybe by then it will be some sort of fashion statement.

However, a story from 2014 also caught my attention that people may find more acceptable. According to an article in The Telegraph, it involved a Dutch businessman, Martijn Wismeijer, inserting a small Near Field Communication (NFC) chip into his hand through a syringe. The chip was only 2m by 12mm in size and at that time could only store 888 bytes of data.

The chip can be read by NFC devices as well as cell phone. Wismeijer was using the chip to store Bitcoin, a digital form of money.

Certainly its limited size restricts its usage, but increases in technology and perhaps increases in size may allow it to be used for a variety of things such as buying items at a store and even opening doors.

But there were a couple interesting fall outs from this. First, after the chip was inserted into the hand, it caused a painful swelling and redness for a day or so and of course a larger chip would cause more of a reaction. But it was only temporary which may make it more acceptable.

This has some wondering if this redness was the mark that John saw.

The second thing that Wismeijer noted is that young people were open to the idea of such a chip, while the elderly were more resistant. So, the wholesale acceptance of this technology is probably a generation or so off.

READ: Will These High-Tech Tattoos Monitor Our Health or Bring Us One Step Closer to the Mark of the Beast? AND Wearable Circuits Sintered at Room Temperature Directly on the Skin Surface for Health Monitoring AND Man embeds computer chips in hands to store Bitcoin: