Inkbox Temporary Tattoos. Product and Website Review.

 

I kept getting ads for Inkbox, a temporary tattoo company that's supposed to be on top of the temporary tattoo game. I saw they were having a sale on tattoos at 25% off, so I grabbed a few for myself and to share. I wanted to try these for review but this becomes a roller coaster to say the least.

I picked out two for myself and two for the other person. These are the ones we selected (photo shows full price, I will show a break down of order with the discounted prices):

Here is the breakdown of the order. The otter and babygirl tattoos are for me, the other two are for them: 

Tattoo one is 11.93 USD or 15 CAD, tattoo two is 14. 31 USD or 17.99 CAD and tattoos three and four are 13.52 USD or 16.99 CAD, I found these even on sale overpriced as they are rather small, wait till you see how small they are......(I didn't get out a tape measure prior to purchasing, which I should have cause the photos in ad do not really show off their size well.)

I split the cost with the other person, making it 25 CAD or 19.89 USD per person, not too bad........right? We will see how it unfolds.

I made this order April 4th 2021, it shipped out April 6th 2021 and I received it today April 8th 2021, it was very very quick shipping, I was surprised. This is one of the quickest I have ever received a package.

In the package you get primer wipes for each tattoo, a instruction guide (with reference to an online video you can also watch) and your tattoos.

Here are the tattoos, I received in the mail:

The otter one is very small and the jellyfish is a fair size the other two aren't too bad in size but still a lot smaller than I'd have liked.

MY BIGGEST TIP: DO RESEARCH ON THEIR SITE BEFORE PURCHASING. There is a lot of important information we had missed. We didn't look into things until we got our package because I found out there's various body parts they tell you not to apply the tattoos to, including the upper chest where I wanted to put my two tattoos. They tell you to also avoid face, neck, crotch and again chest, as you can have a reaction. They have a strict list of body parts you can apply them to. If I had known this before I probably wouldn't have purchased them, as I wanted them so I could put them on my chest.

Aftercare is also important to read into before purchasing as there's a bit on what you need to do to get the most out of your tattoos, which I did not do. I also had seen various ads from Inkbox saying they last 1-2 weeks but some ads stating 2-3 weeks, the card in my package states 1-2 weeks but their site also shows how long fresh vs faded they will be on what body parts. It shows most of the body parts will keep them fresh looking for almost to about a week and the second week will be faded, which I'm not crazy about but I get it. (I do though prefer this idea and timeframe to other temporary tattoos which look nice only for a few (3-4) days then take long periods of time to break down unless you scrub away.) For these Inkbox tattoos we will be counting the days and documenting them as we go. Important to remember when you apply they go on blue or green and take a day or two to become darker or black depending on your skin tone.

Also later on we checked what these tattoos are made of and they are reported to be made with no chemicals but these exotic fruit and plant based products, or so I read but of course have been FDA approved.

Today is April 9th and we are doing the application process today. This is what came in out package:

Here is the leaflet:

We follow the instructions EXCEPT you cannot remove the boarder once it's on your body, there's no way to peel that off, so we didn't. Also the video skips the stage anyway.

This is the application of each one:

We applied these and are now waiting 60 minutes. We did 60 minutes per tattoo not overall, so we each set two timers as to make sure we do them only 60 minutes each.

My tattoos so far are going fine but hers are not, her body temp is too high despite not being in too warm of a room and she is not sweaty. Her tattoos are now bleeding half an hour into the wait:

If you are naturally more warm than others these might not work for you. I recommend being cold, it seems any type of warmth is a bad idea, they state a comfortable setting or at 20C but that can differ from person to person and room to room if you don't know the temperature of the room, as body and room temperature really affect these. 

She also reported feeling like she's been punched hard, it's not painful but like a punch to the arm. I report feeling tightness and heaviness in the arms but not like she has described. 22 minutes in for her first timer, she describes her leg as tingly and her arm feeling "dead". She also said she was unhappy with how they don't lie flat against the skin, even though we flattened them down with application, the boarders of her tattoos are coming up, maybe because we needed to remove them but again how could you remove the boarders once the tattoo has been applied? 21 minutes in on my second timer and I am reporting feeling tingly in the left hand.

We are going ahead with her part of the review to see what happens, overall and compared to my experience, for the review.

We have reached the end of the 60 minutes for our first tattoos, we remove the plastic and this is what we have now:

I describe the removal feeling like taking off a band aid and for her she said waxing, it was painful for her. She said even after removal she experienced pain, I have since reported that to the company.

My second tattoo came out VERY WRINKLED, despite there not being any wrinkles during the application, it was smooth. I am very unhappy with how this turned out. Three out of the four tattoos went poorly in some way but the otter one so far, looks the best but you can see marks from the boarder, again it didn't make sense to remove the boarder once it was applied, we definitely screwed that up.

1.5 hours later and the baby girl tattoo has become much less wrinkled:

And the otter tattoo has less boarder visible than before, on camera it looks even nicer than what I'm seeing:

It's been 4 hours and all wrinkles are now gone:

The more I look at them the more unhappy I am that they are so tiny, would've been a lot cuter on my face or chest, if that would've been allowed, I'm glad I didn't risk it anyway though because it could've ended worse for me.

Now we wait at least 24 hours from application, we will update you then on photos.

It's now April 10th and it's been 24 hours, this is what the tattoos look like now:

Hers are dark blue and my baby girl one is black but the otter one is almost black or black.

The leaflet states you can shower after 8 hours and she took a shower after 24 and her tattoos continued to bleed (the arm one is nicer on camera than in person):

After my shower my tattoos are fine, no bleeding or any physical changes:

Now we wait one week and see how they look.

Today is now April 16th 2021 and these are the tattoos as of one week:

The otter tattoo is starting to fade but the other one is still going strong for me. Her tattoos are looking worse for wear but the jellyfish one is now the worse looking one.

My tattoos are both now starting to fade, we are 10 days in:

Hers are looking rough as before but the jelly fish is almost not even a jelly fish anymore, it's just a weird bruise looking thing. The other tattoo you can still see parts of, it's the roughest looking one

It has now been officially two weeks, today is April 23rd 2021 and this is what they look like now:

Hers are almost as they were a few days ago when they started fading, though the jellyfish one is certainly unrecognizable. Mine don't look too bad but the girl in my baby girl tattoo is going faster than the the baby part and the otter one is doing the best.

It's been 16 days and this is how it's going:

The company finally responded to the complaints my sister had, they said they would refund for the arm tattoo.

We are now 19 days in and this is what we have:

They are on their way out, hers are almost completely gone, mine will likely outlive hers; well at least the otter one haha.

We are now at 22 days and this is what we each have left:

The otter one is hanging on as long as it can, yet the baby girl one is fading much faster, hers look like weird marks.

It's now May 6th, it has been a total of 27 days and my tattoos are now all gone. I'm not sure when that happened but I had forgotten about it. Her tattoos are just barely there:

It's now May 8th and hers still look like tiny bruises:

Many days have passed, we forgot all about the tattoos and to check on them but it's safe to say they are finally gone, it took a few days or so for them to be completely gone:

So this experience was WILD to say the least, I think it wasn't worth the money and she could say the same. It would be a fun thing to try once but I wouldn't do it again, of course she agrees as her experience went poorly. Considering everything I rate Inkbox 3.5/5 and she rates it a 3/5, despite how it turned out for her, it's likely not the fault of the company but they had good customer service and overall a cool experience to try out before a tattoo or for the kids or just those that wanna have some fun without commitments of real ink.