The recent tattoo trends have leaned towards delicate, detailed and minimalistic with styles like stick-and-poke, geometrics, helix tattoos and water colours, just to name a few.
To our surprise, tattoos aren’t just limited to areas that are covered by skin. Tattoo artists have started tattooing clients’ fingernails! One such tattoo artist is New York-based Jonathan Valena, or JonBoy (@JonBoyTattoo), whose clientele includes Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.
According to JonBoy, nails are harder to ink due to the natural grooves and the harder canvas, thus requiring a lot of precision and concentration for clean lines. So, we highly recommend going to someone who has done nail tattoos before.
We know many of you are wondering if it hurts and we’re relieved to tell you that, apparently, the pain level is equivalent to getting gel nail polish taken off, which means zero pain! Because the needle doesn’t pierce the skin, it will not hit the nerves so it just feels like something scratching on your nail.
However, like all nail art, fingernail tattoos are semi-permanent and would last you around 4 to 6 months.
As your nails grow out, the tattoo will slowly but surely disappear as you trim your nails. Unfortunately, that means there’s also the awkward stage where half of your nail art is still there and the other half has disappeared along with your nail clippings. Not to fret, in the meantime, you can just opt for a manicure and cover it up with some good old fashion nail polish.
We suppose the cost of a nail tattoo depends on the design and the individual tattoo artist, but for something that is still semi-permanent, perhaps just regular nail art from our manicurist would be a more wallet-friendly option. But if you’re looking for something that is more unique and edgy, definitely go ahead and get a nail tattoo!
Header Image: @jonboytatto and @darthwraith
