Millennial Friends Get ‘Temporary Tattoos,’ Then Discover Big Mistake

A group of friends celebrating one of their 30th birthdays over the weekend decided to mark the occasion by getting some temporary tattoos.

It was only later, however, that they realized the tattoos were not as temporary as they had assumed. It resulted in some very awkward looks when they got back to work on Monday morning.

Tattoo regret is nothing new. In 2023, a Pew Research Center survey of 8,480 adults who had gotten tattoos found that 24 percent of respondents regretted getting one or more of their inkings.

But, while tattoos may be a source of shame to some, it is rare that a temporary tattoo elicits these kinds of feelings.

Noemi Ricci, an Italian living in Brussels, Belgium, was recently in London, in the U.K., to celebrate one of her close friends, Lorenzo, turning 30.

He was the one who bought the tattoos. “We were supposed to go to a club in east London, and he bought the tattoos thinking they would light up in the dark or at least react with the disco lights,” Ricci told Newsweek.

She said that they were “quite ahead with wine and celebrating” by the time they decided to put the tattoos on and thought little about what it would take to get them off. Even then, though, she sensed something wasn’t right.

“The way the tattoos stuck to our body was not like the usual temporary ones,” Ricci said. “Only my sister, Rebecca, raised the doubts, but we didn’t listen to her.”

The friends proceeded to stick the tattoos wherever they pleased. One woman applied a dolphin design to her face; one of the men in the group got a barbed wire design running across his neck; while the pick of the bunch saw another of the guys opt for an Illuminati-style pyramid tattoo on his forehead.

All of which was great fun at the time. It was only the next day that someone popped up in the friends’ WhatsApp group to ask the million-dollar question: “Does anyone know how to get the temporary tattoos off?”

The answer was a resounding no, and the group began to share pictures of their tattoos, still very much present the next day. It was only then that they looked up the tattoos online and discovered they were semi-temporary. “It said they would remain for around three weeks,” Ricci said.

That posed something of a problem for those who had to work the next day. One of Ricci’s pals is a university lecturer. “Another of my friends has a panda on her cheek,” Ricci said. “She works as a cardiologist in a hospital in Italy. We also have someone with a razor-blade tattoo on their wrist.”

Ricci has not escaped unscathed. “I currently have a dolphin with sunglasses on my face,” she said.

Some have already taken drastic and decidedly painful action. “The Illuminati pyramid tattoo has been already scrubbed off,” she said. “It left a mark, but they really didn’t want it there.” Another of the men, with the barbed wire design, was also panicked as he had an important meeting coming up.

Ricci said that many of them have opted to either “wear patches of foundation or simply work from home” and, while it may have not gone entirely to plan, she said she is sure they “will laugh about it” for years to come. She has even shared a slideshow to her TikTok, @onemicirci, showcasing what happened.

Ricci has sworn off temporary tattoos, but the ink on her face has come with one unexpected benefit. “I must say I haven’t been harassed on the street since I got my face tattoo,” she said.