Sharpie Sleeves?

October 30, 2006 8:52 PM

Posting for a friend: He just decided on his Halloween costume, and we need to temporairily tattoo his arms. Are then any health concerns for drawing sleeves on each arm in Sharpie?
posted by duende to Health & Fitness (24 answers total)

Just use a washable marker? I've used a washable marker to draw on "facial" hair and it works quite well. I'd get quite a few. As an added bonus, if you scrub with soap and water, it'll come right off.
posted by allthewhile at 8:54 PM on October 30, 2006

How much skin coverage are we talking about? 50 percent? More?

If you want do more than draw some lines on his arms, it would almost certainly be easier and safer to use a product designed for skin.
posted by jjg at 8:54 PM on October 30, 2006

Response by poster: He was thinking lof 70-80% coverage, but probably more realistically 50-60% percent.

Obviously a product designed for skin would be preferable, but we're talking about being in a pinch: on the west coast there are just three hours to the Witching Hour!
posted by duende at 9:08 PM on October 30, 2006

Wet coloured pencil works pretty well and doesn't cause much harm. Are there any food products/colouring that could create the same effect?
posted by divabat at 9:11 PM on October 30, 2006

Response by poster: As a follow-up question is there anything that he could use after the initail art to reduce smearing of sharpie/colored pencil/whatever?
posted by duende at 9:15 PM on October 30, 2006

I'd be a little concerned about using a sharpie on that much skin, because the solvent from the ink is going to soak in just a bit, and in that kinds of quantities it's liable to make him a bit ill.

Also, you do realize that it's going to be on him for a week, right? It's only going to disappear once his skin grows a new later and the stained one flakes off. It ain't coming out with a brisk soapy shower.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:32 PM on October 30, 2006

...once his skin grows a new layer...
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:33 PM on October 30, 2006

One thing to think about is that, unlike ingesting chemicals (which are then filtered through the liver), the skin doesn't process toxins before absorbing them into the blood stream. I'm not sure how sharpie compares to, say, the unpronounceable ingredients in lotion or shaving cream, but that's a health issue to keep in mind.
posted by soviet sleepover at 9:44 PM on October 30, 2006

Speaking as someone who draws sharpie tattoos out of boredom on a regular basis - bad idea. It won't smudge much, per se, but it'll stay on for a week or more and look progressively worse. I never use enough to feel ill from the chemicals directly, but the fumes themselves are headache-inducing.
posted by Phire at 9:52 PM on October 30, 2006

I don't know about sharpies, but if you want to cover his skin in something, drink a bottle of wine.

Keep the cork though. Hold cork over a small flame, it'll turn black. Rub this on your body. Rinse, repeat. (It might work better if you don't rinse before you repeat though).

It'll leave a black dusty coating on his skin. If you just want a plain 'covered' look, this will work. It's very thick, not just a pasty greyish smudge.
posted by twirlypen at 9:57 PM on October 30, 2006

I think Crayola marker would be a much better idea. Those say non-toxic right on the label and you can get them at pretty much any grocery store.

But really, at this time of year, I imagine you stand a reasonable chance of being able to buy skin paint or similar at a 24 hour drug store/ grocery store or (shudder) Wal-Mart. Just please don't cover your arm in Sharpie ink!
posted by chickletworks at 10:12 PM on October 30, 2006

The last time I drew on myself with Sharpie (and it's been a couple of years) you could still see all or some of it for a few days (this with showering at least once a day), so depending on his work situation, probably not a good idea.

It's a little late to order something online, but may something like this shirt work if you could find one in town?
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:20 PM on October 30, 2006

Well, if he just needs tattoo sleeves and they don't need to be of anything in particular, they actually sell tattoo sleeves in the costume section at most stores. This is the first year I personally have seen them and they have been all over the place. May be an easy way to accomplish it and they are pretty cheap. You can see some examples here.
posted by chrisroberts at 10:27 PM on October 30, 2006

Much easier solution. Use acrylic paint. That's what we used for college bball games, and we used to paint our whole bodies. I did this for four years with no ill side effects. It comes off with a good scrub, and you can even use it in your hair. (It becomes a really powerful hair gel). This would also be much faster than coloring in your entire body with a sharpie.
posted by unexpected at 10:34 PM on October 30, 2006

Get some liquid eyeliner instead. The brush will be more accurate too, so the tattoo will look a lot better.
posted by catburger at 11:01 PM on October 30, 2006

I have used Sharpie tattoos a couple of times. Sharpies are non-toxic. I've never had a problem getting it off--just use one of those big "poofies" that come with body wash and a little soap. They work miracles.
posted by wallaby at 3:14 AM on October 31, 2006

In my experience acrylic paint does not wash out of hair. Once dry you can "wash" it off of skin (where "wash" means "rub it until the layer of plastic curls up into a booger") but not out of hair.

Unexpected, maybe you mean tempera paint?
posted by dirtdirt at 4:10 AM on October 31, 2006

Use something less permanent.
posted by caddis at 4:39 AM on October 31, 2006

I once wrote directions on somebody going to surgery (allergies, pacer, broken collarbone) in appropriate locations witha Sharpie, and those lasted a couple of weeks or more, but then, hospital bedbaths, they don't really scrub very hard.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 4:48 AM on October 31, 2006

I lied, inadvertently. It was a very high-quality roller ball pen, not a Sharpie. Never mind.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:49 AM on October 31, 2006

Speaking as someone who's had an on-and-off bad habit of drawing on my skin with whatever's at hand: I've never gotten up to 70% Sharpie coverage, but I've also never noticed any ill effects (either short-term sickness or skin problems), although the fumes could be a bit much during application. Note that it's entirely possible that I'll get horrible arm cancers in a few decades, though. Conveniently, fine Sharpies can be used for detailed work and Sharpie doesn't smear (unless you sleep with your face on a Sharpied arm). Sharpie does come off much faster than a week if you use soap and water and scrub your arm when showering; it certainly won't come out immediately, but it should be mostly gone after a few days. It's not quite as permanent as everyone thinks it is.

Unfortunately, most of the other suggestions people have brought up aren't going to last the night (in my experience cork ash gets rubbed off fairly quickly, particularly in parts of the body that move a lot, like arms, and Crayola washable markers will bleed and look horrible if it rains, he sweats, he gets a drink spilled on him, etc.) or aren't going to be good for doing anything remotely detailed (Crayola marker tends to run, and tends to spread a little on the skin when applied). I've never tried wet colored pencil, but I'd also be concerned about how likely it is to run. The kind of facepaints sold at drugstores and WalMart are likely to cause a huge mess (they're oil-based, they barely dry, and they smear onto clothes and everything else very easily) and tend to cause breakouts. Acrylic paint can work, but it's best on bodyparts that don't move much, since it can crack and flake off. Non-Sharpie (but non-water-based) pens and markers almost all wash off faster than Sharpie; depending on your palette limitations, you might want to try them. You could also try actual inks and bodypaints - there are inks used for tattoos in movies and plays, although I've never run across them. Fancier costume stores may have them, I suppose?
posted by ubersturm at 6:25 AM on October 31, 2006

I use sharpies all the time at work (chemistry lab). If you did decided to use them for the art, acetone or finger nail polish remover will remove the majority of the color, with little to no scrubing.
posted by estronaut at 7:04 AM on October 31, 2006

I have tasted Sharpie. It does not taste good, and the taste like the marks stay with you for a while. But it didn't kill me. Having the sharpie touch my tongue did ruin the pen, though.
posted by beerbajay at 7:53 AM on October 31, 2006

My roommate did this a couple years ago with some Sharpies, giving himself all the bad tattoos we could think of (spider web elbows, barb wire, tribal shit etc). He went to a party, probably got a bit sweaty and the tattoos bled and ran in less than an hour or two.
posted by nathancaswell at 9:54 AM on October 31, 2006