Not Quite Ready Yet?

One company offers ink that lasts a year. Taylyn Washington-Harmon asks if it’s too good to be true

When I first heard of Ephemeral, I thought this US-based start-up was offering just another version of a temporary tattoo. Yet Ephemeral uses a real tattooing needle; its tattoos are actually engineered to last between nine and 15 months.

Joshua Sakhai, a co-founder of Ephemeral, says that its tattoo ink is absorbable through your skin and can be removed by your body. Men’s Health dermatology adviser Dr Corey Hartman says the concept is intriguing:

‘[The ink] would break down into smaller and smaller pieces and get carried away by lymphatics, like how tattoo laser removal works.’ Ephemeral chooses to remain tight-lipped about its ingredients, maintaining that they’re all approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. On that, Dr Hartman says, ‘I feel like you owe it to the people you’re tattooing to share that information.’

But as someone who has two permanent tattoos, I found that Ephemeral seemed considerably less risky. Its shop greets you immediately with a strong scent of sage, which I imagine is to calm nervous first tattooees. After checking in, I had a short wait before meeting with my tattoo artist. He had prepped my design on an iPad – a slight alteration on the keyblade from the video game Kingdom Hearts. The process took about 30 minutes, felt just like getting a real tat, and as I stood in the mirror looking at my fresh ink, I couldn’t help lamenting that it would last only a year or so.

What’s the catch? Not much, to be honest. As long as you keep it clean, moisturised and sun protected, like a real tattoo, no one will know it isn’t permanent. Consider it the perfect tattoo trial run.