Fingernail printers that paint photos of your family, pets and favourite designs on your nails will be in Australia this year.
In a venture that turns nails into social media, Nebraska start-up Fashion Tec USA said its nail printer, which was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, would be in Australia "in the next few months".
Known as the Tat'z Nail'z inkjet printer, it uses Hewlett-Packard ink cartridges to print ornate and complex designs on fingernails in a fraction of the time needed to painstakingly do it by hand.
Customers can choose from 30,000 preloaded designs, or bring along a USB-flash drive with a photo of a loved one, pop idol or their cat and have it adorn their fingernails in seconds. The printer has its own camera for those bent on a nails self-portrait.
The ability to print any design opens the opportunity for nails one day to be a medium for commercial advertising with celebrities endorsing brands on their nail real estate.
But the $US10,000 price means the nail printer is unlikely to become part of your home network; instead it can be leased by nail bars and beauty salons.
Fashion Tec USA founder Brett D. Boyer said production of the cutting-edge printers was getting into full swing.
"We completed our initial launch at the CES show in early 2013.
"We have a few test units out to the public but have now fully launched the product," Mr Boyer told The Australian.
"We currently have an exclusive distributor in Australia and they will be taking the product to market in the next few months," he added.
The printing process takes only seconds. The first step is to apply a base coat of a chosen colour manually.
The machine then prints the design and a final coat is added. There is virtually no drying time.
"You simply print directly on to your natural nail, artificial nail or acrylic nail, depending on how you wish for the design to look," Mr Boyer said.
"We use HP ink in our machines. The quality prints as good as photo paper depending on the resolution of your picture.
"We can also print into a curved surface which is one reason the product is so revolutionary. You can literally put any image on to your fingernail. Any picture you can take or dream up can now be an image on your nail."
Mr Boyer said the machine at this stage was for fingernails only so don't stick your foot into it.
"We don't suggest you use the unit to print designs on your toenails."
He says the nail printers would be available for sale and for a base lease price of $US199 ($190) a month, although pricing may vary slightly from country to country.
He said Fashion Tech USA was a company of 8 people founded in 2011.
"We feel like we are opening the doors for many to become entrepreneurs and/or become even more successful entrepreneurs with our business opportunities that we offer," he said.
