Funky hair-styles, body-piercing and tattoos are the statement of the youth (also quite a few grownups). Everyone wants to stand apart from the crowd, and wants to be noticed and there are many ways to do it. Tattooing your body is just one of them. Some – get it done for shock value or to gain instant attention. Tattoos that proclaim rebellion through weird sketches or simply love for a sweetheart with a heart and arrow, you can wear your heart on your sleeve, quite literally! Tattoos allow you to get in touch with the playful, creative side of your personality; they even given you a platform to vent your anguish.

But do they have any relevance in present-day society? You bet. Just think about it. If you have ancestry dating back to the aboriginals in Australia you actually get to flaunt your heritage.

As we all know, tattooing has come to be regarded as an art form. Body art is as popular a medium as any other form of art. What used to be common back-alley practice viewed with suspicion and riddled with scorn is now held in high regard.

Other important benefits of Tattooing are that it helps to camouflage bad skin and baldness; it is also known to hike self-esteem (especially in women) and boost confidence. In addition, it helps foster a spirit of unity or belongingness. Yet, permanent tattooing is not without its drawbacks. Tattooing has been held as the number one culprit for spreading the deadly hepatitis C virus, just to quote one instance.

Most tattooists are not fully aware of the toxic levels of the dyes and chemicals used during the tattooing process. Sure, your tattooist may be consistently sterilizing his needles and putting on disposable gloves, but he may not be necessarily addressing the toxicity of the dyes being used. Please be warned that ‘unprocessed’ dyes and colors can give you an HIV infection, leprosy and melanoma, not to mention ulcers and a host of skin problems.

When you walk into that popular tattoo parlor in your neighborhood, the next time,  you will need to pre-ensure that its owners follow the health and hygiene regulations strictly. Or, even better, you can go in for temporary tattoos.

Just think about it: do you really need those heavy bandages to restrict your movement, even as you long to scratch those inaccessible, itchy spots? Do you really want to feel anxious of thinking what disease you may have contracted because of the foreign element that just entered your body?

Consider another fact: the permanent tattoo proclaiming your ex-love will hardly be a pleasant sight to your current love interest. Worse, you could be rejected for a coveted job just because your interviewer does not approve of the flashy markings that Tattoo lends to your personality. More alarming- certain symbols might get misinterpreted in other cultures and unknowingly, you could become the needless victim of a hate crime. What do you do in such cases? Go in for an expensive and extremely painful laser removal solution? Or the even steeper intense pulsed light therapy?

The good news is that there are much cheaper and absolutely painless alternatives available. These are-as you know them- temporary tattoos. As the name suggests, temporary tattoos do not have a lasting effect on the skin. Because the dyes used are just stuck on the skin with the help of Skin-Friendly glue, tattooing becomes a painless exercise. Temporary tattooing is also considered safer compared to the real thing although reservations have been expressed in certain quarters.

Consistently rising in popularity is the airbrush mode of temporary tattooing. The basic principle in operation here is placing a stencil over the skin patch, which is filled by the paint from the Airbrush Gun. Also, the same stencil may be used for Temporary Henna Tattoos as well as Glitter Tattoos.

What are the advantages of temporary tattooing? Firstly, it is absolutely painless even though the airbrush instrument points towards you rather threateningly like a real tattoo gun.

Temporary tattooing is also comparatively much safer, as the colors are painted on the skin and not under it. This means that you won’t get pus or blood oozing out from various spots in your skin. Make sure you approach someone who enjoys a good reputation in the business.

These Fake Tattoos can be self applied on any part of your body. You can buy any ready available design of Tattoos, and water transfer it over your skin. The Temporary Tattoos, other than Water Transfer variety, are available as Glitter Tattoos and Crystal tattoos. You just need to peel them off their backing paper, and apply anywhere on your body. The best part is, if you buy these tattoos from a reputed company, the adhesive used is also completely safe for skin.

Lastly, you can remove the temporary tattoos at will with the help of oil or cream. Most temporary tattoos will stay on for week or so and gradually fade away.

So, make your decision: do you now want to go through agonizing pain just to get that permanent splash of color (that you might want to remove later) on your body and remain bandaged for days with the possibility of getting infected?

O yeah….temporary tattoos are just a fraction of cost of a permanent tattoo