Ink on Demand: The Tattoo Vending Shop and Tattoo Vending Machine Revolution
Temporary tattoos are not new. Whilst the history is a little vague, it is generally agreed that the first temporary tattoos came in the Cracker Jack (Trademark) boxes in 1912 featuring a prize in every box. As things progressed in the United States by the 1950’s sheets of temporary tattoo designs were sold for 1 cent each.
As the market developed, tattoos came and went in a range of markets, but were first introduced into most western countries in the 1970’s. Many people from this generation remember the skinny packs of tattoos with a stick of candy or gum in each packet. At the time, this fad or trend lasted about 10 years, with temporary tattoos soon fading off supermarket and shop shelves. Even at the time when having permanent tattoos on a person’s body was quite unusual and certainly a minority of society chose to have permanent tattoos, the temporary tattoos which could be purchased over the counter certainly had great success.
However, it was not until the 1990’s that Temporary tattoos really exploded onto the market. They moved from a novel candy and children’s concept to the more mainstream market. Teenagers, celebrities, and adults started to wear them and they became increasingly popular. They were even used professionally on movie sets and were a regular accessory in any make-up artist’s kit.
At this time the first mechanical temporary tattoo vending machine was being developed and really hit the international market in the early 2000’s. This mechanical temporary tattoo vending machine slowly grew in popularity and became wide spread within 5 – 10 years globally.
Damian Lewis bought the concept of the mechanical tattoo vending machine to Bulgaria and also Eastern Europe in 2007 and became the market leader in the geographic region, securing sites such as Bulgarian airports, shopping centres, holiday resorts and a number of other leading locations. Vending Solutions Bulgaria soon became the largest retailer and wholesaler of temporary tattoos machines in South Eastern Europe.
In 2017, Damian returned to Australia and tried to bring the concept of the mechanical temporary tattoo vending machine to his homeland. After a number of discussions with leading industry players, it was ascertained that due to Australia’s, and indeed the rest of the world’s, move towards a cashless society, this would make the mechanical coin based tattoo vending machine obsolete within 5 – 10 years. Damian then scoured the world to find an electronic ‘tap & go’ temporary tattoo vending machine and was surprised to find that none existed.
Damian then commissioned German engineers and Australian manufacturers to produce the world's first ‘tap and go’ temporary tattoo vending machine. After 18 months of product development and testing, the ‘Tattoo Shop’ was first introduced to Australian consumers in a range of different locations including shopping centres, hotels and other prime destinations. The demand and performance was outstanding.
After 12 months of successful operation and strong profitability, Damian Lewis realised that to expand globally the base of operations would need to expand considerably. After several visits to a number of global vending machine manufacturers, Damian chose a reputable, best in class Chinese manufacturer to enhance the current machine and make it suitable for the Asian market. This included designing a new range of tattoos to suit individual demographic requirements and also enhancing the payment system to include not only ‘tap and go’ card payments, coin and cash, but also one that accepts WiPay , Alipay, ApplePay, QR codes and can be integrated to the various countries localised payment software applications.
Damian relocated to South East Asia and has been in constant communication with a number of global and national vending operators. So strong was the demand at the recent Bangkok Vend ASEAN Expo* that within three weeks of the expo, the Tattoo Vending Shop secured its first deposit for a major tattoo order to a leading Asian country. Stay tuned for more details about the exciting new Asian launch.
The Tattoo Vending Shop is currently in exclusive negotiations with a number of other countries for exclusive distribution rights and is also fielding a significant amount of enquiries for individual machines to test in a range of markets. 2024 will see the Tattoo Vending Shop expand not only its area of operations and team, it will also see a massive new range of tattoo styles being produced and also the integration of stickers and collectable cards into the current range of stock.
As the only cash, card and QR payment tattoo machine in the market globally, the team at Tattoo Vending Shop is delighted to show an increasing number of clients and interested business parties the benefits and profitability of this exciting new invention, which pioneers and takes the temporary tattoo market to the next level.
It is also noted that keeping up with an ever-evolving market is a sustainable competitive advantage that the Tattoo Vending Shop has. Being the inventor and developer of this exciting machine, any new-comers to the industry will need to copy or imitate the original Tattoo Vending Shop machine if they are going to bring a competing product to the marketplace in under 12 months. That is why the Tattoo Vending Shop is proud to be not only the market leader, but the only one in the market currently with this innovative tattoo vending product.
For more information, or to see how you can be part of this exciting project, or want further information, please reach out to the Tattoo Vending Shop at https://www.tattoovendingshop.com/faq
