A friend who thought I might like his humor introduced me to Dave Barry, and I was dissappointed to find out that his humor is just ok, and boring after a while. However, in Dave Barry’s Holiday Gift Guide I found the coolest gift ever!
I ordered one of each, and if they are only one tenth as cool as they look in the page every one of my friends can look forward to receiving these for many years to come (or at least until I run through the entire collection, don’t want to repeat a gift since that would diminish the coolness factor.)
For thos who do not want to click the links above, the coolest gift ever is described by Dave Barry as follows:
"Perhaps you’d like to get a tattoo, but you’ve been holding back for some reason, such as that you’re not drunk. Or you’re worried that when you get old and saggy your tattoo will stretch, so instead of having, say, an arty little butterfly on your shoulder, it will look like you’re being attacked by a giant mutant bat.
That’s why you need Tattoo Sleeves. These are sleeves that make you look as though you have tattoos all over your arms. Think of the pranks you can play! Like, say you’re a non-tattooed college student with strict parents. Imagine how they’ll react when you take off your jacket and they see your tattoo sleeves. They’ll react by having coronary failure. So make sure your tuition is paid in advance.
Tattoo sleeves fit everyone. They cannot, however, be removed. (Ha ha!)"
Dave Barry humor is just…ok? Does not compute. Dave Barry is one of the spiritual fathers of this very message board I dare say. Well perhaps not the board itself, but certainly an influence on many, many posters.
Before grandmothers and soccer moms started getting tattoos and rendering them practically invisible any more, I purchased some temporary tattoos for my kids. I’d say this was the mid-90s. These tattoos were of a little higher quality than the lick-on type that come in cereal boxes, stayed on for a couple weeks and didn’t peel off much.
For fun, I picked the most outrageous biker-chick looking one I could find and stuck it on my ankle. I believe skulls and/or flames were involved. It was summertime, so I was mostly in skirts and sandals. You would not BELIEVE the looks on the faces of my coworkers. You could just * see* their pupils dialate as they totally re-evaluated me. It was hysterical. Being the middle-aged dowager I’ve been my entire life, I’ve never gotten an actual tattoo. Those few weeks with a flaming skull on my ankle gave me all the tattoo-related excitement I’m bound to need for the rest of my life.
I mean, I think the idea looks like it could be totally fun for a gag, but I fear some people will use these as honest-to-goodness fashion accessories, which I think goes against the whole point of having tattoos. If I had a real inked arm and saw somebody going around with one of these at a bar or wherever, I would probably be irked.
I hope we don’t run into each other then, because fashion accessories is exactly the purpose I have in mind. But why would it irk anyone? Does someone with natural blonde hair get pissed off at someone who dyes it blonde? I mean, tattoos may have had some tough guy rep at some point, but when teenagers and grandmothers are getting them, then tattoos, real or not, are just that, a fashion accessory.
I think tattoos are meant to be a deep personal statement, and not some passing trend, buuuuut let’s just agree to disagree. Tattoo discussions + SDMB = oh noes.
I hear you, but I hate to tell you that, based only on my time spent on beaches in South Florida, tattoos nowadays don’t seem to have a whole lot of deep meaning for many people. Unless there’s deep meaning attached to Tweety Bird and Fairies.
Hmm, I wonder how those sleeves would look if you have hairy arms? No matter, I so want to get a set for a prankster friend. He’d have a lot to fun with them!
I have hairy arms and they looked fine. At least the ones I bought did, they had a flesh colored nylon that the tattoo is applied to. From a distance (even a few feet) it is difficult to tell if they are real or not. Most people did a double take.
Oh, lalenin, thank you!! I have been looking for these forever!
(And FTR, I have an actual tattoo, an ankh, over my sternum. I have worn ankhs since I was a little girl. They actually do have deep personal meaning for me; after all, you mostly can’t see it unless I show it to you. The sleeves, however, are just colorful and fun.)
Maybe by the tattoo-ee. Just my opinon, but if you’re going to get something permanently inked on your body, I would hope it’s something that has meaning.
Getting an 18-inch Tweety Bird tattooed on your back just for ‘funsies’ seems kinda stupid to me. Ellen Cherry, I know just what you mean. I got a henna tattoo a few years ago, and it lasted nearly two months. The double-takes and wide-eyed looks it got me were pretty funny.
At a shop on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. I had gotten it one of the first days we were there, and then took a friend back a few days later so she could get one, and the woman touched mine up for free, so it was like a double layer of the ink.
I was also very careful when I washed around it.
While I don’t disagree with you, I do wonder what the hell that has to do with novelty tattoo sleeves. Isn’t the point of novelty tattoo sleeves that they’re not actually tattoos, and so are *precisely *a passing trend and temporary decoration?
I mean, I don’t suppose you have a problem with people wearing, say, anklets or tennis bracelets, even though those are popular styles of tattoo. How 'bout me - I have a “necklace” tattoo (actually, a tattoo about pendant sized where the pendant of a necklace would fall), and while it has great personal meaning for me, I don’t hesitate to wear an actual necklace for fashion and fun.