Local brothers patent new tattoo
Tyler and Braden Handley raise $17 million toward temporary art
As teenagers growing up in St. Catharines, brothers Tyler and Braden Handley were both fans of tattoos, but had some trepidation about getting one.
They feared they would one day regret the decision.
“We didn’t want to be that guy that had that tattoo that aged him,” he said.
The brothers researched options — hoping to find a product that would “make us feel bold and confident and would actually feel like a tattoo, without the permanence,” said Tyler, 31.
But there wasn’t much available at the time.
“It blows our minds that something as ubiquitous as tattoos, especially amongst our generation, was so binary in terms of optionality.
“You had only the temporary tattoos that you had as a kid, that are cheap, they fade away in a couple of days and they don’t look real. You can’t wear them with any sort of conviction or confidence as a young adult.”
The brothers, however, eventually learned about members of an Indigenous tribe in Panama, which for centuries has been using the juice of Genipa americana fruit to dye their skin.
With backgrounds in marketing and communications, the brothers understood the business potential in developing a realistic temporary tattoo based on that skin dye, but they needed to bring in people with the expertise needed to develop a marketable product.
“We surround ourselves with people who are more intelligent than us,” quipped Braden, 28.
After analyzing the chemical compounds within the fruit that react with skin to change its colour, they developed and patented a formula that became the basis for a semi-permanent tattoo product.
And unlike henna tattoos that are typically brown in colour,
and temporary tattoos that are “just stickers on top of your skin,” Tyler said the semi-permanent tattoos they now sell on their website www.inkbox.com appear much more realistic.
“They set in your skin and then fade as your skin naturally regenerates,” Tyler said, adding the tattoos typically last between eight and 18 days.
“Everyone’s skin exfoliates at a slightly different rate and it depends where you put it on your body as well,” he said.
Since founding their company in February 2015, Braden said the business has grown exponentially from its downtown Toronto office — now employing 60 people and offering 4,000 tattoo designs, developed by a team of artists.
They have sold more than 500,000 tattoos to customers in
150 countries ranging in price from $14 to $23 each, and their products have been used in television shows and movies — including “Stranger Things” on Netflix and “The Greatest Showman” movie starring Hugh Jackman.
But that’s just the beginning. The brothers recently raised $17 million through the sale of shares in their company, hoping to eventually make their product a household name.
“The financing allows us to scale up our online market place, make strategic hires to beef up our brand and our automation,” Braden said.
“This is a product that we know a lot of people want,” Tyler added. “Now it’s just a matter of getting it in front of them in creative ways that really tie into their daily lifestyles and identities.”
He said the company’s vision is to “really help people find confidence through creativity and self-expression.
“Everything we’re doing in the future is really geared around that initiative.”
In years to come, Tyler said, people “are going to see a lot more of us.”
“You’re going to see us on TV ads, podcast ads, you’re going to see brand activations all over the U.S. and Canada, storefronts. It’s really just scaling up the brand and bringing it to more people in their daily lives.”
Braden said they also intend to launch additional products in the years to come, while continuing to build on the success the company has seen so far.
“We have 60 people now (working at the company), and I’m sure it’s going to be 80-plus by the end of the year,” he said.
Allan.Benner @niagaradailies.com 905-225-1629 | @abenner1