Resons why you shoudn’t get an Ephemeral Tattoo
1. Ephemeral Tattoos are just marketing
I think it is time to address the recent trend that has been going on for quite a while.
Ephemeral tattoos are simply marketed as being tattoos that are “made to fade”.
The ephemeral tattoo industry has been gaining insane popularity over the past years. The marketing and social media did not hold back. Everyone online kept hyping it up to the moon and back saying how wonderful it is to get one, stating some of the reasons below:
- you can get accustomed to wearing a tattoo
- you will find out if you like the tattoo on or not
- you get to try all sorts of ideas with “no strings attached”
- if you don’t like it, it will go away anyway in 9 to 15 months
Everything sounds wonderful, especially for undecided or anxious people. Ephemeral tattoos are the best option for this targeted audience. Therefore, the wave took off and a bunch of people started getting tattoos with said special ink.
Many studios then opened with the marketed ink, like the one from Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
2. Contrary to their name, ephemeral tattoos do not fade
Recently, people who got ephemeral tattoos are coming out.
Former customers are now coming out on social media platforms such as TikTok or Reddit advising against getting one because their tattoos haven’t faded even after 22 months.
TikTok:
Reddit:
I would recommend checking out the comments where people also share their similar experiences with ephemeral tattoos.
Great Video on this topic made by Edvasian
3. The Company's Response
*information taken from The New York Times – Article*
- Ephemeral’s waiver included warnings that “the exact amount of time that the tattoo will last may be shorter or longer” than nine to 15 months, and that the tattooing process “might leave individuals with permanent marks.”
- The company’s public-facing descriptions of the tattoos’ fade times have shifted. The company’s website once claimed the tattoos would be “gone in a year” — despite the caveat in the waivers — but that language no longer exists. As of Friday, the tagline reads: “Real tattoos, made to fade.”
- On Feb. 3, Jeff Liu, the chief executive of Ephemeral, emailed customers with an update of the company’s explanation of how long the tattoos would last; the email also introduced a “regret nothing guarantee” that offers refunds to customers whose tattoos last longer than three years.
- The nine- to 15-month time frame was supplanted in Mr. Liu’s email by an expectation that “70 percent of all Ephemerals will disappear in under two years and others longer.” The website also says: “Don’t worry: your Ephemeral will disappear.”
In an interview with The New York Times on Feb. 10, Mr. Liu said that describing the tattoos as “gone in a year” was “oversimplifying” and had caused confusion among customers. The nine- to 15-month time frame reflected what the company had expected the majority of customers to experience, he said in an email, adding that the company was continuously testing new language on its website.
- Mr. Liu said he had learned that “some customers will just take the initial tag line at face value.”
- The company’s primary innovation was its ink, which was invented by Brennal Pierre and Vandan Shah, both chemical engineers who met at New York University. In 2014, they began work developing an ink formulation that breaks down over time. Mr. Liu said that the ingredients in the ink are all F.D.A. approved and are similar to those used in dissolvable stitches, but did not specifically disclose them.
- Mr. Liu declined to say how many people the ink was tested on before it was in use. He said that in six years of development, there had been case studies and “clinical studies” under the supervision of an Institutional Review Board, one of which he said was being reviewed for publication in a medical journal.
- He also said the company had begun testing various removal options and that it planned to test laser removal in addition to other removal methods.
- The new messaging may make a difference for people considering an Ephemeral tattoo. But for some who still have tattoos they got before the company’s language shifted, the updated guidelines read more like a mea culpa.