Are temporary tattoos about to make a comeback?
Fun designs that are as easy to change as make-up
G-Club
July 23rd, 2022
July 23rd, 2022
Fun, colorful, decorative and mom-approved. Temporary tattoos are a lasting memory of every kid born in the old millennium. When summer arrived, our bodies were filled with skulls, mermaids, unicorns, anchors, flowers, Hello Kitty and tribals that, after a few dips in the sea, disappeared to make way for new designs. Making them was so easy. You would find them at the newsstand, as inserts in Barbie or Cioè magazine, peel off the transparent film, apply the remaining part to your skin, wet it, and voila: the image of a rose wrapped in thorns or any other subject you wanted would appear. Then if you had an artistic disposition, you could go further and, inspired by Madonna in the Frozen video, recreate intricate graphics with henna. The real girlie girls, on the other hand, preferred to copy Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Paris Hilton or Jennifer Love Hewitt and compose romantic silhouettes of stars and dragonflies with rhinestones. For a long time this trend remained buried in our childhood, until Gen Z elected the 1990s and early 2000s as the true bible of contemporary style. So after cargo pants, exposed thongs and hair gem, someone must have thought: why are temporary tattoos given to kids but not adults? So more and more brands and stores in the industry have started to dedicate themselves to this slice of the market.
In the past both Rihanna and Sephora have launched capsules of temporary tattoos, perfect to show off in the festival season, followed by Tattly (Diplo was seen with the Starbucks-themed set), Flash Tattoos with its bright and colorful designs, MILK MAKEUP with its Tattoo Stamp or Inkster with its tattoos that last only a couple of weeks. Taiwanese John Yuyi has modernized and transformed the trend by creating social media-inspired temporary tattoos also for big brands such as Nike, Gucci and Chanel; while Brooklyn-based studio and brand Ephemeral Tattoo has created an ink that, although applied by real professionals like a traditional tattoo, is formulated to have one of about a year.
Celebrities from Bella Hadid to Kim Kardashian have a real fondness for INKED by Dani and enjoy alternating hearts and butterflies as easily as they change outfits. What if this is the real appeal of temporary tattoos? The future of this ephemeral art is coming to be used, experimented with and updated as if it were make-up. One week we match eye shadow to a rainbow tattoo, the next we choose a different design in the same shades as our outfit.
