Tattoos

We're excited to present this post from our partners over at Yahoo! Shine:

Real estate agents at a New York-based broker are showing their company pride — and getting an extra 15 percent in commission — by having their company's logo tattooed onto their bodies.

Thirty-seven men and women at Rapid Realty have gotten the green-and-black "Double R" tattoos so far, the company's CEO and founder, Anthony Lolli, told Inman News.

Related: Celebrity Tattoos Gone Wrong

"They wear it like a badge of honor," said Lolli, who is also a real estate agent in their South Park Slope office. "They get a lot of respect from the other agents with the amount of commitment that they have."

There are other benefits as well: "Talk about marketing — they're walking billboards!" he tweeted.

Learn more about this interesting story after the jump.

Glitter body art might not be the first cosmetic you grab in the morning, but thanks to improved designs and formulations, it's becoming less street fair and more decorative flair. Beauty brand G The Body Art Professional will soon launch spa- and salon-only services, where clients can get anything from butterflies to peacocks to faux bracelets and necklaces stenciled onto their bodies. And with Halloween and the holidays on the horizon, now's the time for shimmery body art.

"We use a refined, cosmetic-grade glitter, which allows the tattoos to lie flat to the skin with a smooth, soft finish," explains the company's vice president of sales and marketing, Beatrice Fogle. This means longer wear and reduced transfer. But whether you head to the salon or purchase a glitter body art kit for at-home use, there are a few key steps that ensure your temporary tattoos stay on your body and not on your clothes.

1. Before you apply:
"You need to make sure that your skin is free from any oil, lotion, or moisturizer," says the line's resident makeup artist and business development director, Au Mauricio. "It's best to wipe the area with alcohol to prepare the skin for the stencil, glue, and glitter."

2. Where to apply:
"This is what I love about the product," says Mauricio. "You can put a really small star behind your ear — like a trendy tattoo — or you can put a cascading cherry blossom design from your neck down your chest. You can [even] put a full-back design to complement your backless dress, or you can wear it like a gorgeous neckpiece for an evening affair."

3. Keeping it on:
"To keep it looking fresh as long as possible, take care not to apply lotions, creams, or products, like toners or nail polish removers, to the tattooed skin," recommends Fogle. While you can still use soap on the tattooed area, avoid rubbing the glitter when showering so that the particles don't loosen and lift away from the skin.

4. If you're feeling a little gun-shy:
Not sure if glitter body art is your thing? "Try a small design on your ankle or shoulder, or one of our demure bracelets," Fogle advises. "You can also have confidence knowing that while your glitter tattoo will last about a week, you can remove it immediately if needed."

We're happy to present this story from our friends at Allure:

Rock of Ages opened last weekend, and by now you're more than aware that it stars a very ripped Tom Cruise as an aging metal rock god with eye-popping tattoos covering his torso. What's wrong with this picture? The tattoos, for one. They're way too bright for a guy who's supposed to have been there and done that twice over and lived to tell the tale. Look at real rockers from that era — Bret Michaels, Tommy Lee, Axl Rose — and you'll see that their ink today is closer to a gauzy scene by Monet. These colors don't run, but man, do they fade — especially when exposed to sunlight. Whether you're thinking about getting a tattoo this Summer or already have one, here's what to do to keep it bright and vivid:

What do you give a photography pal who already has every camera, lens, and accessory under the sun? Gift skin ink of the nonpermanent variety in the form of the Tattly Camera Tattoo Set ($25). Since the photographers we know are rarely without a camera, a tattoo of any duration seems like a natural next step.

The illustrations by three Brooklyn designers are not your average grocery-store toy-machine temporary tattoo. The set of 12 tattoos in six different designs — including an old-school Polaroid, Rangefinder, TLR, SX-70 Polaroid, and black-and-white aperture shutters — are so beautifully crafted that we almost hated having to use them during our real-world testing. A breeze to put on, each tattoo is about three inches in size and surprisingly long-lasting! Many of our testers weren't able to clear the ink for several days, scrub as they might (I'm going five days strong with my tat).

Sure, temporary tattoos may not seem like the most practical use of $25, but as a just-for-fun gift or party activity to show off your photography cred, this new scene of high-end washable tattoos is something we're ready to stick to.

Tats on tots? Tattoos are a divisive aesthetic on adults; the thought of a child actually getting their sweet lil skin permanently inked is a pretty unpleasant idea, to say the least. Yet that's exactly what 10-year-old Gaquan Napier did with the full support of his mother Chuntera. According to the law in Georgia, where the family lives, it's illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get tattooed — with or without parental consent, a fact that Napier claims to have been unaware of when she granted her child permission to permanently mark his body.

This story sounds pretty black-and-white — what was she thinking? — until we learn more details of the reason behind the tattoo. Two years ago, Gaquan was with his older brother Malik when he was struck and killed by a teenage driver at the heartbreaking age of 12. When Gaquan went to his mother and asked her permission to get a tattoo in memory of his deceased brother, Napier said, "It made me feel good to know that he wanted his brother on him."

Napier is currently in custody and facing a charge of misdemeanor child cruelty. In several other states, a child getting inked with the parents' permission is perfectly legal, so do you think this mom deserves to serve time for allowing her son to create a memorial to his big brother?

Dermablend has long been known for its heavy-duty cover-up, but this new commercial really cements its reputation. In it, an average-looking guy slowly reveals himself to be tattoo-covered model "Zombie Boy" Rick Genest. His name might not be immediately familiar, but Genest's tattoos should be. He's the guy with the full-body skeleton tattoos from Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" video, and it's really impressive to see him look so "normal" (although his gaze is still rather intense. Hellooo, nurse!).

There's no airbrushing, and the whole video was done in a single take. Dermablend says it took three makeup artists and four tubes of Dermablend Leg and Body Cover, along with Leg and Body Tattoo primer and setting powder, to take Genest from sexy zombie to cute, if not as remarkable, dude. Watch it and you'll never doubt the power of concealer again.

Apparently, it's not too hard to rig up a DIY tattoo machine if you have nine-volt batteries, a pen, a toothbrush, a needle, masking tape, parts from a DVD player, and a little ingenuity. Famed tattoo/fine artist Scott Campbell (his ink is on Marc Jacobs, Courtney Love, Sting, and Orlando Bloom, among others) and filmmaker Casey Neistat recently did a very scary thing and built their own makeshift tattoo gun.

They document assembling and using the gun in their new short film dubbed Prison Tattoo, which takes them all over New York, from a convenience store to garbage cans and finally to Tompkins Square Park, where Campbell gives a friend a real tattoo using the contraption. It's pretty fascinating to watch, and also disquieting to think about people making these for themselves. Kids, don't try this at home.