Forget all the souvenirs of the beautiful trip – key chain souvenirs, snow souvenirs, commemorative jackets or other tourist sticks.
Jetsetters are opting for a more permanent mark from their travels: they’re getting inked, as “taturism” is on the rise.
Data from Hostel World found that more than 40% of adult holidaymakers under the age of 35 got a tattoo while traveling – half of whom revealed they went abroad just to get some ink.
California tattoo artist Rose Hardy previously told Conde Nast Traveler that about 70% of her clientele travel from other cities or even countries to get inked by her, while Oaxaca, Mexico, artist Dr. Lakra said half of his customers travel from abroad.
Cristina Ferucci, 25, previously told The Wall Street Journal that she and her friends got similar tattoos to commemorate their trip to London last year that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We needed something to signify and hold this moment together forever,” she told the Journal. “It’s small, but it’s the best memory.”
Meanwhile, Sean Flynn, a 36-year-old editor living in Jersey City, recently went to Barcelona on vacation, spontaneously getting a new tattoo during his travels.
“What’s important is not what anyone else thinks about my tattoos, but what I get out of them, the personal satisfaction and joy they bring me,” he told the Journal. “This is better than any souvenir.”
In New York City, hotels are cashing in on the body fashion craze, opening salons in their lobbies or inviting in-residence tattoo artists.
Moxy Hotels recruited Jonathan “JonBoy” Valena to be resident at the Times Square location in 2019, and recently, Hotel Untitled opened the city’s first permanent hotel tattoo studio, Unscripted Ink, where guests receive a complimentary drink at the ceiling strip with their paint.
“It came from tattoos being the ultimate souvenir of a person’s travels,” Liv Novotny, tattoo artist and co-founder of the shop, previously told The Post. “A piece of art on you for life that always reminds you of the city you traveled to and the adventure you had.”
Over the years, hotels in the Big Apple have introduced body art as part of their amenities, such as the New Museum and the W Hotel group, Fodors reported, and overseas, Stockholm’s Generator Hostel and Cambodia’s White Rabbit also have tattoo parlors in house.
It is not limited to hotels, cruise ships are also on board with the trend.
New Jersey-based Madison Blancaflor, 27, told the Journal she was once put on a cruise by Virgin Voyages, which offers a tattoo shop on their ships.
“How many people can claim to have gotten a tattoo in international waters?” she said.
The tattoo tourism trend is just one aspect of a larger movement for souvenir ink. At pop-up events, parties and even weddings, goody bags have been swapped for flash tattoos.
Despite buzz that the arrangement can be unsanitary — and, not to mention, can end badly, depending on the level of intoxication of the guests — newlyweds have offered people the chance to get inked at their wedding, according to viral videos on TikTok.
At pop-up events around New York City, customers can get a free flash tattoo, small pieces of art that have already been drawn, according to Eater.
At Lower East Side hotspot Ray’s, the bar hosts seasonal events and offers themed paint — Taylor Swift tattoos for “Thurs-Tays,” “Beetlejuice” art to celebrate the spooky new movie, Charli xcx paint for a “weird summer” – off – and they are not the only ones.
In December, That Cheese Plate founder Marissa Mullen commemorated her brand’s 10th anniversary with a tattoo station, telling the media that “it’s an amazing way to mark a memory.”
Meanwhile, food brand Omsom has also celebrated anniversaries with flash paint, which company co-founder Kim Pham calls “funny and cute.”
“I feel like self-expression shouldn’t be taken so seriously,” Pham told Eater, likening the memorial ink to seeing “your body as a little notebook.”
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Image Source : nypost.com