Intention

Inform the audience about the potential of tattoo technology

Carson Bruns’ main intention with his TED talk “Could a tattoo help you stay healthy?” is to inform his audience that tattoos could be used for various purposes, with the right technology. To achieve this intention, Bruns informs the audience about his vision – that tattoos can be enhanced to give humans new abilities (ll. 41-44). Bruns mentions his experience as a university professor, as an artist, and as the director of a laboratory that researches nanotechnology, creating ethos around himself. This portrays Bruns as knowledgeable and trustworthy and makes his message more appealing. 

To persuade the audience that his work in advancing tattoo technology is useful, Bruns appeals to logos. He provides statistical data about skin cancer in the US and links this with people’s inability to tell when th...