We all know that students are desperate to raise extra money when they can. Stefan Pretty, a civil engineering student from Perth, Scotland, is hoping to raise £25,000 by transforming his body into an advertising billboard.

However, the money is for the Oxfam Haiti fund, not himself. Stefan – who states he would never have dreamed of having a tattoo – was so overwhelmed by the plight of the Haiti people, he’s prepared to permanently mark his body in order to do his bit for the cause.

He recently launched his website yournameonme.com, which encourages both individuals and businesses to buy a ticket for £1.25, with the winner’s name/brand having their name tattooed on his back. Not only that, but they will be flown to Scotland to watch their ‘prize’ being applied to Stefan!

Image by www.oxfam.org

“I came up with the idea in the shower. It started off with ‘That would be smart, that could work’, but thinking I could never actually do it,” says Stefan. “Once I came up with the idea to contribute to charity, I saw the devastation in Haiti and this is why I chose the Oxfam Haiti fund.”

Support Stefan’s unusual but brilliant campaign by visiting www.yournameonme.com

Some of you may have heard about Augmented Reality, but for those who haven’t it’s a concept that is shaking up the digital world.

AR is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment that is cleverly merged with a virtual computer-generated imagery; resulting in a mixed and animated reality. Make sense? Admittedly AR is a little hard to grasp, but is filtering its way down more mainstream channels, such as games, videos and phones.

As well as inspiring a number of Smart phone apps, it has now entered the music arena. John Mayer, the hugely popular American rock singer, recently embraced AR in his video for ‘Heartbreak Warfare’. It allows viewers to activate their webcam and hold up a printed or mobile version of the singer to their webcam, and if aligned properly, the video will begin playing with you as an extra in the background!

Image by mashable.com

Impressed? Well we certainly are – but AR doesn’t stop here. ThinkAnApp, the Argentinean-based software development company, has set a new precedent with their augmented reality tattoo. Although the tattoo design is a simple barcode marker on the skin, when you view it through a webcam an animated flying dragon suddenly appears. This is clearly just the beginning for AR tattoos and with such software already available, it’s extremely likely we will see more advanced, complex tattoos surfacing over the next few years.

While we all wait for such ground breaking technology to hit the high street (it could be a long wait) you can enjoy our temporary animal tattoo designs in the meantime!

Ah don’t you just love celebrities and their tattoos, particularly when they use their body art to express themselves to a loved one. Historically, there’s been a whole host of celebs who’ve got a high profile tat on or around Valentines, which divides opinion, and in some cases, the actual relationship.

We’ve compiled the top five celebrities who’ve etched their skin in devotion to their better halves – and possible regretted it soon after. Enjoy!

1) David Beckham
In late 2008, Becks decided to get a black rose on his arm in tribute to wife Posh. As much as their relationship seemingly blossomed soon after, it did wilt for a while when Golden Balls moved to America…

2) Peaches Geldof
Clearly sharing an insatiable taste for tattoos like her mother, Paula Yates, Ms Geldof equally enjoys the attention that comes with it. Last year she caused momentary intrigue after having ‘ex-valentine’ etched on her shoulder, relating to numerous undisclosed ex’s. The intrigue lasted for about 24 hours.

3) Barbie
Ok, admittedly Barbie isn’t a celebrity in the conventional sense, but this iconic doll has been around long enough to warrant the term. Early last year, which also coincided with her 50th birthday, Barbie had her long standing lover’s name, Ken, tattooed on her lower back. Unfortunately Ken later ran off with Cindy and they’re now living in Las Vegas.

4) Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is synonymous with two things: men and tattoos. She also likes to occasionally combine the two with disregard for the outcome. One notable case was her ‘Billy Bob’ tat, in dedication of her lover; yep you guessed it, Billy Bob, in 2006. After their acrimonious split a few month’s later, however, Angelina did consider removing her arm.

5) Johnny Depp
And finally, the infectious Johnny Depp is partial to the odd tattoo. In 1998 he famously got ‘Winona Forever’ tattooed on his shoulder after getting engaged to Winona Ryder. When they separated just six month’s later, Johnny cleverly altered the tat to ‘Wino Forever’! We’re drink to that.

Check out our superb range of temporary Valentines Tattoos which guarantee fun, as well as minimum public humiliation if your relationship happens to go on the rocks!

With Valentines Day just a month away, you may already be asking yourself what to get your loved one this year.

Couple’s who are advocates of Valentines are often the ones who don’t necessarily struggle for inspiration when it comes to finding an intimate or cherished gift for their other half, it’s the ‘non-believers’ who are left in the wake of their romantic endeavours. That’s not to say that these cynics are lacking romance in their life, far from it; it’s probably more a reflection of the commercial clout that Valentines has on most of us – so romance certainly isn’t dead.

The true question is then: how can you make Valentines special or different, without breaking the bank or, ultimately, your relationship? We’ve been firing this question around the office at Tattoo Fashion all week to see what’s on our mind as closet romantics. Questions have included: Would you suggest your partner go speed dating in order to highlight how great your relationship is? Would you buy them a star? (yes, an actual star) and our personal favourite of course, would you get a tattoo?

Maybe the option of stars AND tattoos don’t necessarily work together

Now as you know getting a real tattoo, particularly when you’re young, is a big decision, so make sure you have a long hard think before committing. However, we can’t deny that a couple getting a cute tattoo to symbolise your relationship is pretty cool – just make sure you stay together long enough! No pressure…

If you’re not sure about going for the real thing this February, then check out our fantastic selection of temporary Valentines Tattoos for hours of fun with your loved one!

We hope you’ve all had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas and are raring to go for 2010! Last year was certainly the year of the celebrity tattoo, with the likes of Becks, Rihanna and Megan Fox – to name but a few – all adding to their existing body art portfolio in some way.

We think that 2010 will be another great year for all our favourite celebrities and their tattoos, which means that we will be keeping a very close eye on them as they hit the headlines, before they hopefully hit the Tattoo Fashion website for you all to have fun with!

We’ve been having some fun in the office this week guessing who will be the first celebrity to sport the first tattoo of the New Year, but we now want to know your predictions. Will it be Amy and Britney, or Posh and Becks? Or, maybe it won’t be the usual suspects during 2010; either way we now want to hear from you.

Get in touch by emailing mytats@tattoofashion.co.uk and if your foresight is right, we’ll give you mention on our blog!

Check our or fantastic selection of temporary celebrity tattoos to really kick start the party season this year!

Christmas is the time of the year when you can ask for whatever you want and maybe you’ll receive it. You often here of elaborate and expensive requests, but when we discovered one girl’s very unconventional tattoo-related wish recently, we just had to share it with you.

Michelle Price, a 23 year old student from the University of Central Lancashire, is auctioning her tattoos on eBay over this next week in order to raise money for her final year at Uni. Her cheeky plan is to get people to sponsor the seven new tats she hopes to get early in the New Year instead of getting tattoos themselves!

The tattoos on offer, including a butterfly and Pegasus, will hopefully compensate the fact Michelle was refused several loans and help her get through the next six months of academic life.

None of us here at Tattoo Fashion have ever come across such a creative AND cheeky way to make money, but we have to take out Christmas hats off to Michelle for her resourcefulness!

This is our last post of the year, so don’t forget to get your temporary Christmas tattoo packs before they all go. They’re the perfect way to impress your mates at the party that night and can be washed off the very next day!

Merry Christmas from the Tattoo Fashion team!

You know that we just love our celebrity tattoos here at Tattoo Fashion, with the likes of Becks, Megan and Rihanna all being popular temporary tattoo designs with our customers this year.

During 2009 we’ve seen a clutch of celebrities, including Becks’s and Rihanna, add to their already impressive array of body motifs – and all in the public domain. It’s not surprising when these high profile celebrities use the media to attract even more attention to themselves. So, we’ve compiled the Top 10 celebrities with tattoos for 2009. You’ll notice some very well known starlets, as well as some inspiring newcomers too:

1) Angelina Jolie
2) Rihanna
3) David Beckham
4) Megan Fox
5) Jessica Alba
6) Peaches Geldof
7) Pink
Britney Spears
9) Christina Aguilera
10) Amy Winehouse

Hopefully in early 2010 we will feature some newcomer tats on our website for you to enjoy and share with friends. We’ll let you know as soon as they’re ready!

In the meantime check out our superb Christmas Tattoo Packs containing all your favourite temporary designs from 2009!

We all know that Christmas is a time for giving, sharing and at times forgiveness. However, when it comes to the tattoos below, we’re not so sure if forgiveness is quite enough. But, we still wanted to share these, erm, interesting and quite frankly festive body designs with you. Whatever your reaction, we’re sure that you’ll appreciate them. Enjoy!

1) “Mum, have you done something different with the tree this year?”

2) Ah, the Grinch really gets under my skin. Well, on it anyway

3) This is definitely a tattoo nightmare before Christmas…

4) Somehow Santa’s lost his approachable quality?

5) Er Will, you’re too old to be Santa’s little helper!

Why not see our fantastic temporary Christmas Tattoo Packs for great present ideas for yourself, family and friends!

If like us you love tattoos and literature, then get ready to for some super cool news we heard about recently. For those of you who have read The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, you’ll appreciate the fantastic way in which he merges tattoos with technology, and more importantly, how this ‘illustrated man’ is covered with beautiful shifting tattoos that tell many stories; something that only fiction can often depict.

Well, maybe not. The bright sparks at the University of Pennsylvania, US, have created LED tattoos that could now make the illustrated man very real indeed. Researchers have spent the last two years developing a silicon and silk implantable device that can sit under your skin, similar to a tattoo. These futuristic, moving LED tattoos would effectively act as a mini television screen, and with the chips about a millimetre in size (the length of a grain of rice), they cleverly mould to the shape of the skin when saline solution is added.

We are more than impressed by this at Tattoo Fashion, and can’t wait to see where and how this technology is applied next. In the meantime, we thought we’d share our Top 10 best tattoos in literature – books we highly recommend adding to your Christmas wish list this year:

Top 10 best tattoos in literature:

1) Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville
2) Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
3) The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle
4) The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
5) Blackie the Electric Rembrandt, by Thom Gunn
6) Papillon, by Henri Charrière
7) Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris
A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
9) The Grave Tattoo, by Val McDermid
10) The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall

Check out our temporary Christmas tattoo packs for cool ways to enjoy tattoos safely just like your favourite literature characters.

When will people learn, eh? In fact, scrap that: when will celebrities learn?! Presently, celebrities are synonymous with tattoos, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the right to apply them to other people.

Cheeky RnB singer Rihanna may think differently after inscribing tattoos to people in New York’s famous tattoo parlour, East Side Ink. The pop princess, who hit the charts last year with her frustratingly catchy record ‘Umbrella’, was visiting her tattooist and friend Bang Bang when he spontaneously requested a tattoo of an umbrella with an ‘R’ under it on his leg. Rihanna obligingly set to work and even enticed two fellow tattooists, Josh Lord and Patrick Conlon, to have permanent tattoos on their bodies too.

Although their tattoos were simple – the number ‘2’ and ‘3’ to indicate Rihanna’s novice experience – it’s emerged that Rihanna has broken the law, and could face three misdemeanour charges; resulting in fines totalling $1800!

Not that Rihanna can’t afford such charges, but a surely a lesson has been learnt: leave tattooing to the professionals. As for singing, well, we’ll let you decide that one!

Check out our great temporary celebrity tattoos for great stocking fillers, or to make that fancy dress party even better!