Author: Rusty
It’s difficult to sell temporary tattoos to adults; most of us remember the little cartoon characters with a plastic sheet over them we got at birthday parties or around Halloween, that you applied with water and enjoyed for approximately two hours until they began to flake off your arm and left you looking like you had leprosy. Some of us may even remember the mid-90s urban legend of someone distributing temporary tattoos laced with LSD. Temptu temporary tattoos are one of a new breed of temporary tattoos designed for adults that have almost nothing in common with those old cartoony images of yore, and involve alcohol rather that psychotropic drugs.
That last line isn’t a joke, one of the biggest differences I spotted with the Temptu tattoos right away was that the application pad was isopropyl alcohol. The second was that the tattoo sheet was a thin piece of paper, almost tissue paper like, and had no plastic coating over the tattoo. The tattoo image itself wasn’t sticky the way the ones I’d used as a kid were, and felt dry to the touch.
Applying the tattoo was relatively easy; I rubbed the alcohol wipe over the area I wanted to place the tattoo, put the tattoo face down on the damp alcohol, and then saturated the tattoo sheet with the rest of the alcohol before removing the paper. While applying (both to the inside of my arm and to my stomach, to test flat vs. non-flat surfaces) I noticed that the paper wrinkled a bit, but it doesn’t appear to have affected the application. There were some gaps in the final version, but I’d had the tattoos for a long time so I’m not sure if that’s a result of incomplete application or just a factor of aging.
Once on the tattoos were fairly convincing. The ink didn’t feel bumpy or raised, and they didn’t flake obviously. While they degraded over time (so for best results use them the day of your desired event or viewing) after nearly 48 hours with the tattoos on, my brother spotted the one on my arm from across the room and asked, shocked, when I’d gotten it. In the meantime, I’d been wearing long sleeves, sweaters, and had taken a shower. The one on my stomach, standing up to nearly constant wear from clothing, stood up equally well.
For removal, rubbing mine with isopropyl alcohol (available at any drugstore or pharmacy section, also available there in wipe form) eliminated all the remaining ink on my arm quickly and easily. The areas of more solid color (like the nautical star) took more work, but it took less than a minute to scrub off the tattoo.
I’d give Temptu temporary tattoos 7 out of 8 tentacles because they do exactly what’s expected of them, they wear well, and application and removal are easy. My only reservation is the fact that the one on my arm didn’t have full application, but that may have been age which would be my fault.
Rating: 7/8 tentacles
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