John Park’s Electroluminescent Wearables @adafruit @johnedgarpark #ElectronicHalloween

Glow time! Make a last-minute costume by taping EL wire, tape, and panels to your skin with medical Tegaderm tape. In this video, John Park makes electroluminescent tape sleeves and a mask and hand-mounted Circuit Playgrounds by following this great tip by @realSexyCyborg on using Tegaderm tape to affix wearable electronics to your skin – http://ift.tt/2cuHs86

When using EL wire, you can tape it directly to your skin. For EL tape and panels it’s best to first sandwich it between strips of the tape to prevent the exposed edges from touching the skin.

Cut the tape to size, remove the paper backing, tape the electronics to your skin, and then remove the protective plastic from the tape.

Here I’ve placed a JST extension cable to power a Circuit Playground under the EL tape.

The mask was created by simply tracing out a pattern and cutting an EL panel with scissors, then laminating it in the medical tape to protect the edges.

You can see from the video that this is much easier with the help of a friend to apply the tape and electronics to those hard-to-reach places. This is a fun way to create a great light effect — you could even apply all over the body and cover up with a thin bodysuit for an under-costume glow. Again, thank you to @realSexyCybord for pioneering this technique.

Special thanks to Joel Reid for photography and costuming.