Inked // 1 : Blog a la Cart

My sister, Auntie Kimmy, is a marine biologist by day, but a burlesque choreographer, wooden boat restorer, stop motion animator, and graphic designer by night slash weekend. The woman is the epitome of liberal arts. A beautiful blend of art and science and god, she’s just so cool. My daughters are so lucky to grow up with a woman like her in their lives.

To that end, for years now, Kimmy has been a doodler of temporary tattoos. In fact, one of her drawings turned into a permanent tattoo while we were living together in Southern California. She had drawn an abstract lobster on the top of her foot with Sharpie, right along the flip flop line, and I laid eyes on it and knew that I needed that permanently on my person. A reminder of my roots, my childhood growing up on the harbor of a lobstering village, and my sister, my balance in this world. And so, I have a lobster tatted across my foot. Words I never dreamed that I would utter, but how I love it so. (I promise to do a post about it at some point, in fact, I’m amazed I have no pictures of it on hand, but there ain’t no way no how I’m showing off my December toes. I’ll talk all about my menstrual cycle, but my unpedicured feet, OFF LIMITS!)

Now that Kimmy has become a bit of a wiz at Adobe Illustrator, she’s turned a number of her Sharpie doodles into more polished digital graphic designs. I asked if she’d be up to a column on the blog to create temporary tattoo designs for all you lovely readers, so that everyone could enjoy her creations.

snowflaketattoo-blogalacart

Lucky for all of us, she agreed. And here is the first installment, in the spirit of the season. To turn this design into a temporary tattoo, all you need to do is purchase temporary tattoo paper (I order a pack of this although I’m not terribly impressed. I’ll test out a new paper for next month’s installment) and download the design, and print the design on said paper. These are fun for children and adults alike – and make a great last minute stocking stuffer or gift topper, no?

Follow the directions on the tattoo paper!

And then amaze your three-year old (child or inner child) with the pile of colorful temporary tattoos. Sunny was beyond excited to get a tattoo sleeve of snowflakes. Again, this paper was less than perfect. It took way longer than 30 seconds to get the designs to adhere to our skin, and the clear area around the design was not as invisible on the skin as I’d like. More testing to come with other paper. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Please note that she did the bent knee/pointed toe all on her own volition. I have zero to do with her poses. That’s all Sunny.

She particularly enjoyed jumping for the camera, although it is perhaps not the best pose to show off the sleeve. But do note that she rocked her snowflake leggings for the occasion.