Ephemeral Tattoo Ink

[MadeIndelible]

[video]

 

So, there's this company, a start up, that made tattoo ink that disappears in a few years. Looks like the guy in the video either has no tattoos, or chose to cover them up, the latter of which I highly doubt. That's just a start as to why I think this is a terrible idea. I'll leave this here for your viewing.

[ChrisvK]

This makes me very angry

[Intomyskin]

I think the essence of tattooing is that it is permanent. It think that when you strip away all of the other motivations for tattooing: to symbolize something, memorialize someone, mark life's important moments, births, deaths, transitions... the the bottom line is that we choose a tattoo for those things because it will be there forever. 

In my thinking, if it is not permanent, it is not a tattoo.

[jdberetta]

Personally I think it's a great idea. It creates an excellent business opportunity for many shops to have repeat customers that can truly live with a "tattoo" for an extended period of time and then choose to either let it go away, remove it, or make it permanent (with traditional ink). You're definitely not going to have any less customers come through the door with this option... Maybe few absolute purists will shun people for providing this service, but to be honest, I can't see many artists not embracing this (if it actually works), and I know a few pretty old school tattoo artists.

Although I'm not part of that target market, I think that this can only lead to furthering the art of tattooing. They should call it "Temptooing" or some shit though.

Just my $.02

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[jdberetta]

And what a loser saying "...get a tattoo put on."

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[zetroc]

Hard pass

[Dan]

IMO it's a freakin stupid idea,the hipster crowd should love this one though. LOL

[Devious6]

To me it is indicative of the many people in our country who are unable to commit to anything long-term. Fast, easy solutions to everything and if they aren't happy with something just get rid of it. Crap, I'm sounding like my father!

[marley mission]

so dumb

[oboogie]

Deeply stupid. Seems tailor made for Millennials who can't make up their minds or commit to anything for more than a few months.

[jdberetta]

Which are the perfect people to take money from

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[otisc]

This ONLY works as a start-up, because there are no photos of what it looks like when it works.

Because it's not like you get to have your tattoo for three years and then one day it is gone. No, you get to have your tattoo for a short period of time and it takes three years until you can't see it anymore. Which means halfway through, when it is 50% faded, it's going to look like garbage and the last year and a half, you'll be counting the days until it's gone.

[bongsau]

What a steaming pile of bullshit.

If you can't handle tattoos being permanent, go get one of those fake skull n dice sleeves from the dollar store, get your temporary I'm-so-cool fix and fuck right off. Tattoos aren't for everyone.

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by bongsau

[sophistre]

This is so strange. Do people not realize that you are changing the texture/appearance of your actual skin when you get a tattoo...? Even if you didn't care about tattooing tradition, I mean...it's not like your skin is a whiteboard that you can just erase and re-tattoo over and over again.

Unrelated, but I have a plugin for chrome that replaces millennial/millennials with snake person/snake people respectively, and it never fails to entertain me. 

[jdberetta]

So if this doesn't affect people who aren't getting it done, and can be a great business opportunity for some shops to appeal to that "millennial", "hipster", or "poser" crowd, why is there such a strong stance against it?

"I don't like it so it's stupid". Gotcha.

I personally would never get this done, but in the same way that I wouldn't stretch my ear lobes out, wear skinny jeans, and pretend that my opinion matters to anyone except myself and whoever else asked for it, I leave that for others. Whatever you makes you happy, as long as it doesn't affect me, close people to me, and my environment.

But I guess if you need something to be against in the tattoo world, this just might provide that satisfaction.

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[Graeme]

26 minutes ago, jdberetta said:

So if this doesn't affect people who aren't getting it done, and can be a great business opportunity for some shops to appeal to that "millennial", "hipster", or "poser" crowd, why is there such a strong stance against it?

I don't know how things are where you're from, but where I live, the tattooers who do the best as artists and as business people are the ones who have built a solid clientele over years of hard work and good tattooing.  They're giving people great tattoos that age well, they're giving people great experiences while getting those tattoos, those people come back for more tattoos, tell their friends about their tattooer, and with that comes the more artistically interesting tattoos, the sleeves, the backs.

 

Pandering to a fad like this might make a tattooer some money in the short term, but it's unlikely to lead to a long-term viable career.  Not such a good "business opportunity" after all, is it?

[oboogie]

What's with all the newbie attitude? I'm pretty new here, too, and I would never presume to come in with both guns blazing like a lot of these new people. Are they trying to be assholes? Or are they just blissfully unaware millennials?

I find it both strange and irritating.

[jdberetta]

Where I'm from, and more specifically the shop that I get my work done at, are internationally known/respected tattoo artists. The owner of the shop, and his (twin) brother hold various patents for some of the best tattoo machines in the industry. The tattoo culture here is seemingly quite pure, based on the clientele, the word-of-mouth positive reputation that they have locally, and the numerous magazine features (spanning back to the '80s) that they are in.

I agree that the core business of any reputable shop lies within excellent work, referrals, professionalism, an awesome experience, and repeat customers. I do not think that this service should be a sole business focus, or even a sizeable percentage of the work that they do. However, for that niche group of non-committed (insert adjective here) that this could appeal to, this could be something that fills that gap. It's similar to the business of tattoo removal in the sense that "if you want to have a tattoo removed, you shouldn't have had it done in the first place (or you should've researched the artist better, etc.)

Again, definitely not for everyone, but definitely could be for some. And to be honest, I don't know enough about the true values and culture of tattoo purists to even say that it would be an acceptable service to offer... But that being said, there is another shop here that is very successful, and has an awesome reputation, that offers tattoo removal at the same location (usually to fade a shitty tattoo enough in the situation where the coverup would have to be manipulated too much to stay within the scope of the desired new piece). So I don't know. But I definitely know that any idea that could appeal to a certain demographic need not be dismissed as "stupid" or whatever else, because some people don't think it's something that they would do and/or they feel that the demographic it may attract isn't "cool" enough for them.

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[jdberetta]

What's with all the newbie attitude? I'm pretty new here, too, and I would never presume to come in with both guns blazing like a lot of these new people. Are they trying to be assholes? Or are they just blissfully unaware millennials?

I find it both strange and irritating.

What are you a senior tattoo forum contributor because you've been on this forum for a year and have made 150 posts?

And what the offence with millennials? I'm in my 30s, and have learned along the way that, typically speaking, a certain decade that someone was born in may not necessarily define them very well.

Pro tip: what you find strange and irritating is irrelevant.

[oboogie]

Perhaps reading isn't your strong suit, but I just said I was new here. And you are acting like a know-it-all jackass. Thanks so much for playing. Bye now!

Edited May 18, 2016 by oboogie

[Graeme]

9 minutes ago, jdberetta said:

And to be honest, I don't know enough about the true values and culture of tattoo purists to even say that it would be an acceptable service to offer... 

Except that you have said that at least three times, because apparently it wasn't enough to express your opinion once.  If you don't know enough about something, maybe it's best to keep quiet and learn something before giving your ill-informed opinion over and over.

[jdberetta]

Thank you for your opinion of how I'm acting!

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[oboogie]

You're welcome. Have yourself a fine night.

[jdberetta]

Except that you have said that at least three times, because apparently it wasn't enough to express your opinion once.  If you don't know enough about something, maybe it's best to keep quiet and learn something before giving your ill-informed opinion over and over.

I said that 3 times at least, huh? You're as good at counting as I am at reading, I suppose.

Thank you for telling me what you maybe think is best. One day I'll be as informed and as enlightened as you are about tattooing!!

[SStu]

14 hours ago, jdberetta said:

Again, definitely not for everyone, but definitely could be for some.

but you're trying to sell the idea or possibility of a temporary decoration to a crowd that is all about a real and permanent art form.

Perhaps the commercial aspect of this start-up (honestly non-tattoo) business would go over better on Shark Tank, but the above discussion and outcome on a forum of tattoo enthusiasts was pre-determined.