The Suspect: Fred To-Do Tattoo

I can't tell you how many times I came home from school with writing on my hands and my mother would look at me with horror. "Why do you write all over your hands? It looks terrible." Today I can't stand writing on my hands, something I might have been brainwashed to believe looks awful. But I will admit, when I wrote a reminder on my hand during my school days, I remembered what was so important I had to make a tattoo of it.

So thus, when I saw these in a random trip to somewhere (I've been holding on to them for some time now), I thought they were a neat idea. "The perfect solution for your shoddy short-term memory" the packaging reads. It was calling my name. The small kit comes with 12 tattoos and a skin-safe blue gel pen.

The tattoo works like any other temporary tattoo. Peel off clear laminate, stick to skin, wet paper tattoo on skin with damp cloth, remove paper, admire tattoo, rinse with cool water, and wait for it to dry entirely.

The concept is so much fun, but the execution not as much. The To-Do Tattoos come out well, but I know that most would want to use it on the palm of their hand (like I did) and the lines can come out crooked because the palm isn't the smoothest surface, and therefor not the best palette for tattoos. A great alternative to this is the inside of the arm- which I think makes for a much flatter area.

The other problem was with the gel pen,when I used it to write the tattoos clear parts started coming off as I wrote (my fault, as I did not wait enough time for it to dry properly), but even when I retried it with a second tattoo and many minutes of drying time, the writing still came out spotty.

I love this idea though! I have a sneaky suspicion that if you don't mind writing on your hand with a different pen (which I know most school-goers don't) that this could be great for those forgetful students (or anyone really). And the act of actually putting on the tattoo should make it even harder for you to forget.

Washing it off is super simple too- it won't come off with simple handwashing or lotion, but it will come off easily with a little baby oil and light scrubbing (I expect rubbing alcohol would work too, but didn't have any on hand to test).