I don’t typically pay much attention to temporary tattoos. Why would I? Permanent tattoos are far better, of course. I’m also willing to bet that the majority of people who regularly visit the Tattoo Blog aren’t really interested in temporary tattoos either. But you know what? As it turns out, temporary tattoos are freaking huge business. Don’t believe me? Check this out:
Hidden away in the industrial corridor south of Aviation Highway between Palo Verde Road and Alvernon Way on the southside is a one-of-a-kind, international company that generates as much as $20 million a year by temporarily fulfilling people’s desires to adorn their bodies.
“We are the global leader in FUN” reads the sign outside Tattoo Manufacturing Incorporated where they manufacture six million temporary tattoos a day. Extrapolate that to an annual production and the numbers exceed over a billion product units per year.
KA-FRIGGING-BOOOOOM!!!! Can you believe that? Over a billion product units per year? $20 million a year? That is completely amazing to me and far beyond any of the numbers that I would have guessed that a temporary tattoo company can do. I think that I grossly underestimated the popularity of temporary tattoos. Which isn’t to say that I think they’re cool, but…damn, that’s a lot of temporary tattoos. The Arizona based company is responsible for most of the temporary tattoos that flood the global marketplace each year, and they’re only getting bigger.
On the retail side, TMInternational does business with the biggies — Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target — and other recognized retailers. They produce tattoos of Disney princesses and millions upon millions of pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness events.
“Our largest single sale was to Kellogg’s cereals a year ago when we printed 28 million temporary tattoos for a promotion in their boxes of Pop Tarts,” Tooker said. And there are other worlds yet to be conquered, he said. “McDonald’s is on our radar for their Happy Meal. We haven’t cracked that one yet, but we’re trying.”
Apparently their demographic is between the ages of 5-18, which is cool. I remember loving temporary tattoos when I was a kid, so it’s nice to see that still hasn’t changed.