Chipped nails have always been a nuisance – until now. Manicurists and marketers are transforming the everyday manicure into something more futuristic, with wearable-tech enthusiasts and beauty fans embedding NFC chips into nail art to share business details, social profiles or just about anything with a link, all with the tap of a finger.

While it may feel like magic, the technology is not entirely new. Viral Oyster card nails made waves around a decade ago, while artist Arvida Bystrom used similar chips beneath her skin for a project soon afterwards. Short for “near-field communication”, NFC is the same technology used when scanning a biometric passport at the airport. According to Google Trends, searches for “NFC chip” reached an all-time high this year. What is new is how accessible and widespread the technology has become.

Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist, model and dancer Tiara Kelly taught herself how to do nails in 2021, wanting her hands to remain polished while working as a model. It was in the lead-up to Glaad’s Black Queer Creative Summit last autumn, however, that she first had the idea to create her own gold NFC nail-extension design and document people’s reactions. “People were shocked! Some had to do it repeatedly because they were wondering how my Instagram account could come up on their phone just by tapping my nails,” she says. “It’s a rare conversation starter. Nobody is expecting you to share your website via a nail.”

So how does it actually work? Kelly says the NFC chip requires an app to be set up beforehand, and each chip can hold only one link. “You have to get pretty close for it to work,” says Westchester-based nail artist and educator Dachesca Payano, known online as Nailed By Dache. Two months ago, she posted a video titled ‘i put a computer chip IN MY NAILS… *it took 12 hours*’ for her more than 700,000 YouTube subscribers. In it, Payano runs through the entire process, from where to buy the products and how to use the app to the application itself – complicated by the fact that nails are naturally curved while the chips are flat – and the hand-painted chrome blob design.

“I’d say if you’re looking to incorporate these into your manicures,” Dache says, “make sure you don’t obstruct the tag by cutting, puncturing, or bending the tag so they can work.” She also recommends checking between each layer that the tag still works or it would all be for nothing. “You also might have to use thicker layers of product and put designs over them to fully cover the tag.” Despite their fiddly nature, Dache sees a bright future for wearable tech in beauty, especially in the nail and hair industries. “If more people start hopping on this trend, I can see nail brands making NFC nail art stickers, NFC nail charms, and other cool stuff.”

Women and girls are a welcome and growing force in the DIY tech space, driving viral projects such as custom cyberdecks, including Meshtimes’ design disguised as a make-up palette. Already established in the industry is Janey Park, a DC-based fashion-tech marketer and founder of the Digital Runway platform, who has decades of experience in luxury beauty and fashion. “After getting laid off, I tapped back into my childhood dream of media, launched The Digital Runway and coined Wearable Fashion Tech™.” The platform is built on the premise that technology should come second to design. “It’s for anyone who has ever looked at a $500 AI gadget and thought, I would actually wear that or wondering why it’s so ugly,” she says.

For Google I/O in May, Park programmed her LinkedIn profile into the NFC chip on her left thumbnail and her Substack into the one on her right – the thumbs are easier to scan, she says – creating a memorable networking moment. “I was going to so many conferences and they are networking marathons,” she says. “Everybody is doing the same sad dance: fumbling for a phone, hunting for each other's handles, standing there while an app loads on conference WiFi which more often than not isn’t working.” As her TikTok video gained momentum, other networkers caught on to the idea, and NFC nails became a trend at Cannes Lions the following month. “I am honoured that I inspired so many women and even men,” says Park, noting that more than 50 women told her they planned to wear them to the festival. “I didn’t invent NFC chip nails. A Japanese brand, 2LumiDecoNail, was doing them back in 2014.”

Conversations about the future of wearable tech are everywhere right now, particularly following Kylie Jenner’s recent collaboration on Meta glasses. The tech giant’s next move is reportedly a wearable AI necklace, which will likely be a success if fashion girls are considered from the beginning. “We want something chic that happens to be smart,” says Park. “The people who will decide whether wearable tech is cool are the same people who have always decided what's cool, and it isn’t engineers or tech bros,” she says. “There’s a whole rise of tech happening where women are reclaiming tech on their own terms, and the industry still hasn’t figured out that these are the people it needs to hire.”

NFC manicures are just one small part of a broader shift towards wearable tech and the merging of body and machine. While fringe communities have experimented with biohacking for decades, the barriers to entry are now lower than ever. For the moment, NFC manicures are being used mainly for networking, but they open up a whole new world for nail art. Soon, we could all be swapping memes, links and ideas with a single tap in the smoking area, putting the fun back into functionality.