Travel Tattoos
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Some people collect passport stamps. Others want a mark on their skin for the places they've been, or the one they're about to see. Our travel tattoos keep that idea small and blue-black: world maps, globes, tiny planes and mini sheets, ready for departure day and gone within a couple of weeks.
Travel tattoos, symbol by symbol
- World maps. Traced in one unbroken line, filled in as a solid blue-black silhouette, or crossed by a compass and arrows. Give a world map tattoo a bit of room: the forearm, the upper back or the inside of the arm.
- Globes. A fine-line globe on its own, or one with a little plane circling it.
- Planes. Small airliners trailing dotted lines and hearts, or paper planes on a dashed route, all gathered on their own page: airplane tattoos.
- Mini tattoo sheets mixing a tiny plane with other doodles. Good for scattering a few small pieces before you go.
Other classics from most lists of travel tattoo ideas sit in sister collections. Head to compass tattoos for a needle that always finds north, mountain tattoos for peaks and ridgelines, and palm tree tattoos if the trip ends on a beach.
Put it on before you leave
With temporary travel tattoos, timing is the whole trick. Apply your design 1 to 2 days before departure. Right after application it looks pale, almost see-through, and that's normal: the blue-black builds over 24 to 36 hours as the jagua ink develops in the top layer of your skin. Give it 8 hours with no water and no rubbing.
After that, go ahead. Shower, swim, sweat through a long hike. Nothing peels off, because the color sits in the skin rather than on it. Lots of salt water, chlorine and sweat will speed up the fade, while daily moisturizer and sunscreen help it hang on. Expect one to two weeks of wear, which covers most trips.
And since no needles are involved, there's no fresh wound to look after on the road.
Where to wear it
A small travel tattoo fits the wrist, the ankle, a finger or the spot behind the ear. Know this before you choose: hands, fingers and feet get washed and rubbed all day, so the color fades there first. It lasts longest on the forearm, shoulder, nape and upper back.
Applying one takes two minutes, tops. Wet the back, press, peel. The formula is PPD-free and vegan.
Make it about your trip
The coordinates of a favorite beach, the date your flight leaves, the initials of the cities on your route, the outline of a country or an island: any of these can become a custom tattoo. Order 3 copies or more, in standard sizes up to L. Your design is approved before printing, then made in 3 to 4 weeks. Going with friends? One design, a copy each, and the whole group wears the same trip.
Before you pack
What tattoo symbolizes travel?
A world map, a globe, a compass and a small airplane come up most, plus mountains, waves or palm trees when the trip has a clear setting. People often choose a map as much for the places still on their list as for the ones already ticked off.
Is it okay to get a tattoo while on vacation?
With travel tattoos like these, yes. There are no needles, so there's no wound to keep out of the sea or the pool. Apply it 1 to 2 days before you leave, since the color takes 24 to 36 hours to show, and keep it dry for the first 8 hours. From then on it's waterproof and lasts up to two weeks, a little less if you're swimming every day.
