11 Temporary Tattoos That Are The Perfect Alternatives For Body Art Commitment-Phobes

As someone who has whiled away many a happy hour enthralled by breathtaking tattoo designs (including temporary tattoos!), and draws more Biro doodles on her body than on paper, the sight of my disappointingly blank-canvassed body as I step out of the shower each morning is always a sight for sore eyes. As a girl who grew up seduced by the huge, courageous lady balls of Maud Stevens Wagner, romanticizing the bravery of her contortionist-turned-tattoo-artist lifestyle at a time when tattooed women were still regarded as freak-show fixtures, my personal lack of permanent skin adornments has always been a source of embarrassment, as I sit, a fraudster of my own fascinations, explaining away my ink-blot-free body.

Fact is, it's not due to a lack of inky inspiration, or a heart-pounding aversion to needles. Truth be told, I'm overwhelmed; transfixed by the delicious disparity of tattoo designs I've had the pleasure of bearing witness to; torn by the tumble-jumble of body art blueprints trickling through my brain cells, and above all, stricken by the cold hard realization that my skin canvas is finite.

You could say my aversion to committing to ink-based permanency is a prime example of the "grass is always greener" mentality — every time my mind concocts a faultless forearm design or a subtly whimsical wrist tattoo, the raging tattoo commitment-phobe inside of me screams, "Wait! What if in five years' time you think up a better bodily illustration... something brighter, sharper, more personally relevant... and there's no room left at the inky inn? Do you want to live a life full of regrets and broken dreams!? DO YOU!?!"

Thankfully, whilst my body-branding battle has been busy transforming my mind into an anxious garbage-gabbling mess, the fashion industry's range of temporary ink options for tentative tattooers has been sharply diversifying. From pocket-friendly at-home Henna kits to body art pens and even Chanel stick-ons for all you designer brand tattoo fans, the industry's newest army of temporary tattoos offers a cheap, painless, commitment-free method of boring-body escapism, which can be swapped and changed more often than your hairstyle. So whether the idea of public maiming doesn't excite you or you're as terminally indecisive as I am, feel free to liberally adorn yourself with these top trumps of temporary tatts!