There's a lot of effort that goes into being a bridesmaid. You've got to deal with the dress, of course, and potentially the bridal shower, and definitely a bachelorette party that'll probably force you to travel to Nashville or Miami with a group of drunken strangers. But bridesmaid-ing is also a great way to show your soon-to-be-married bud you love her, even if it does mean traipsing down Duval Street in Key West wearing a tank that says, "I Do Crew." Another good way to tell your BFF you love her? Getting her face temporarily tattooed to your body. Yep.
They say you can find anything on Etsy, and indeed, seller Lilimandrill is hawking $80-plus customized temporary tattoos featuring the punim of your choice, that you can commission for weddings, bachelorette parties, bar and bat mitzvahs, or Wednesday happy hour, should you feel compelled to surprise your college friends with a collection of their faces on your body. France-based Lilimandrill's long sold tiny, customized, hand-drawn portraits, which can be placed on mugs, stamps, and other souvenirs for big events. Gifting a soon-to-be-wedded couple with a cute hand-drawn caricature of faces on a mug is sweet enough, but stamping someone's resemblance to your hand, or shoulder blade, or, I don't know, forehead? No judgement here.
They do look really cool:
According to the Etsy product description, the tattoos are hand drawn using pencil, providing purchasers with "a unique, precise and delicate piece of art just for you and your guests." The tattoos last two to three days — so, about as long as the entry stamps you'll be trying to scrub off from any and all bachelorette-mandated bar crawls — and are ready to ship two to three weeks after they're ordered, for a shipping price of $19. Pre-shipping $80 gets you 25 tattoos, though the cost gets a tad steeper for bigger bulk orders.
This is a cute group gift for a bachelorette, particularly since you can include the bride's name and any pertinent social media hashtags. They also seem like a fun thing to do for a sweet sixteen, or bar or bat mitzvah, or your mother's 60th birthday party, which is not meant as a hint to my sister in any way shape or form, no sirree!
If you don't feel like putting cash out for a bachelorette tattoo, or if Lilimandrill's wares are sold out by the time you get around to placing an order, Etsy's got a lot of other bachelorette ideas that go beyond the standard matching tanks. For instance, they've got customized wine tumblers, complete with reusable straws (bachelorette parties are no reason to neglect the environment); these rather graphic temporary flash tats; customized sleep masks, which, considering how difficult it is to get some shuteye in a room full of wine-drunk women, is a great idea; crocheted penis lip balm holders, because why not; embroidered handkerchiefs, for people who prefer their bachelorettes to be classy AF; these penis slippers that I find truly terrifying; and these customized compact mirrors. Man, there's a lot of goody-bagging that goes into getting married, huh.
If you would, however, like to draw your friend's face on your shoulder to celebrate her ditching you in single-dom forever in favor of, ugh, love, you can always grab a Sharpie and apply it to yourself. If your artistic skills are, like mine, rather wanting, you can claim her misshapen skull and crooked smile is actually an abstract representation of your face mashed with hers, which, after all, is what true friendship is all about. She may never speak to you again, but you did agree to wear seafoam green for her, so.
