Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: Tina, the fearless lady behind TATTLY

If you think temporary tattoos are just for kids, then you haven't discovered Tattly yet, the Brooklyn-grown company that specializes in creating temporary tattoos even adults want to wear - everyone from Brooklyn hipsters to hip grandmas. And in addition to being a Brooklyn company, Tattly also supports artists! They employ artists from all over the globe to design tattoos which ranging from vegetables to comic book characters. Today we catch up with Tina, the fearless lady behind Tattly who took a design challenge and made it into over 100 amazing temporary solutions.

What's the story behind how you developed your product?    

In the spring of 2011 my daughter came home from a birthday party with hideous, badly produced temporary tattoos. They were a complete insult to my Swiss aesthetics. I decided to do something about it and reached out to my illustrator friends to see if they'd like to come up with some designs. Two months later I launched Tattly.com and we were in business.

Tell us a little about yourself…          

My name is Tina Roth Eisenberg. I am a Swiss born and trained graphic designer. I moved to NYC in 1999 for a three-month internship and fell in love with the city. I have since started several side projects that have turned into businesses, one of them being Tattly, my temporary tattoo company.  All of my projects, such as Tattly, have originated out of my personal rule that when I find myself complaining about something repeatedly, I have to either do something about or let it go. I believe that the best way to complain is to make things.

What do you make?

At Tattly we produce and distribute temporary tattoos designed by well-known illustrators and artists. The tattoos are printed in the US and we ship everything out of DUMBO Brooklyn. For every sale, the artist gets a generous cut.

How long have you been at it?

We've just celebrated our third birthday!

Walk us through a typical day…                                                                                    

After my husband and I drop our kids off at school, I come to the office. I run a co-working space in DUMBO called Studiomates, right on the East River. I love coming to work and seeing the boats go by. Then I check in with Tattly, and after that, with CreativeMornings, a breakfast lecture series that I started 6 years ago here in DUMBO. (We are now in 87 cities around the world.) After meeting with my teams, I usually tend to my overflowing inbox. And my favorite part of my day is lunch with my studiomates. I usually walk home around 6pm and am welcomed by my smiling, hugging children.

What art or design currently inspires you?                                                                    

Life inspires me. I am a curious person, and living in NYC is the most inspiring thing I've ever done. There is so much to see and experience.

How has the city inspired what you make, and how you make it?                  

The people of the city are what make this such a wonderful place to live. It's this collective   hustler energy, the doer mentality, that makes NYC so special.

What is your favorite NYC museum? Why?                                                                    

I would say it’s the NYC Transit Museum on Boerum Place. I have spent many rainy Sunday afternoons in there with my kids. It feels like time travel when you walk through the old subway cars in the station.

What is your favorite part of Brooklyn and why?                                                    

Our rooftop. We live in a new construction on Schermerhorn and I often have a glass of wine on the rooftop. We can see all around Brooklyn.

If not creating what would you be doing?                                                                        

I would never not create. Never.

 For more information on Tattly products,  you can visit our gift shop open daily from 12pm to 5pm or check out their website, www.Tattly.com.