Start-up company with Texas roots lets you test-drive a tattoo before you make it permanent

Momentary Ink allows customers to live with a design for a few days before springing for an actual trip to the tattoo parlor. Momentary Ink allows customers to live with a design for a few days before springing for an actual trip to the tattoo parlor. Photo: Jordan Denny / Momentary Ink Photo: Jordan Denny / Momentary Ink Image 1 of / 99 Caption Close Start-up company with Texas roots lets you test-drive a tattoo before you make it permanent 1 / 99 Back to Gallery

A Philadelphia start-up is giving tattoo enthusiasts an option to try out a design on their body before they spend the cash and go through the pain of getting the real thing.

Jordan Denny and his wife Lindsay spent five years in Austin working in the tech world, and like most people who spend any amount of time in the state’s capitol they began to itch for the tattoo experience. Austin is one of the most-tattooed cities in the country.

They both wanted to get a permanent reminder of the city tattooed on their bodies. He wanted the Austin skyline on his wrist, while she fell in love with a tree in Zilker Park and wanted to get its outline somewhere on her frame.

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Their company, Momentary Ink, let’s you test drive – in a sense – a tattoo design before getting it physically etched into your skin.

Denny, 28, is a part of an Austin-based incubator, Forever Jobless, which helps entrepreneurs get their ideas off to the right start.

For $15 you send them the design that you are looking to get put on your skin and they will send you back a high-quality temporary tattoo that you can affix to yourself before you make the giant leap.

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Denny says that the designs, also available fully-colored, comes sealed and matted and can last up to five days depending on your daily routine. They are also water and sweat-resistant. They give the wearer an idea of what they could be caring with them for the rest of their lives.

Removing these tattoos hurts significantly less than removing a piece of artwork with a laser over a period of months.

An Austin tattoo artist, Bradford Cravens, endorses the product on the Momentary Ink website. According to Denny, the artist began telling prospective customers about the website if they seemed on the fence about getting the real thing.

Denny and his wife never did get those Austin tattoos after all. They ran out of time in Texas to get them when they left in March.

“We had an appointment for the last day before we left but other priorities took it over,” Denny says.

He says that if this project takes off they just might get that ink finally.