Summer Fair Body Art

Summertime is often filled with street fairs, country fairs and other special festivals. They are a perfect opportunity to get outside, enjoy the weather and have some fun with friends or family. They also often offer chances for spur-of-the-moment body art, most of which is supposed to be temporary. Here are some things to think about so that those summer celebrations don't leave more of a mark than you wanted or was intended.

Temporary tattoos and the Sun

Getting a stick-on or airbrush tattoo is something that's often fun and easy to do at a fair or festival. Booths displays dozens of designs and artists are standing by. But remember that anything you stick onto the skin is going to effect sun exposure, and while you may have thought that having a design for a weekend would be fun, if you aren't careful, you could wind up wit a mark that lasts much longer. Most stick-on tattoos are a thin film of plastic that adheres to the skin and for some people this can block a bit of sun from getting through. What that means is when the tattoo wears off or is washed off, it can wind up leaving a lighter spot or outlined. This pale reproduction might take weeks to fade or even out.

Bad Henna

With summer events, many body art booths hire temporary or volunteer workers and although those folks might be able to do what they were hired to do, it doesn't mean they are looking out for your best interests. If you decide to get any temporary henna designs, remember that henna paste is reddish-greenish-brownish. It's never supposed to be black, and if it looks that way it means that illegal and potentially-dangerous hair dye has been added to the mix. Stay away from black henna! This can burn the skin and leave you with a permanent scar version of the henna design. If that happens, you'll be looking at thousands of dollars in dermatologist expenses to reverse the damage.

Traveling Piercing Booths

A temporary piercing booth doesn't automatically mean it's a bad place, but you do have to know what to look for and what to look out for. All practitioners should be wearing gloves to touch any equipment or do any procedures. Any equipment should be single-service (meaning it's only ever used for one customer before being discarded or properly re-sterilized). Any and all work surfaces should be wiped down between each customer with cleaning agents that are properly rated to kill hepatitis C (which can live for six months on an open surface). Don't be afraid to ask questions and if the piercer(s) don't want to take the time to answer you or get irritated by you asking, take your business elsewhere.