Werewolf Tattoo

The moon was Hollywood's idea

Everyone knows a werewolf changes at the full moon. Almost nobody knows how recent that is.

Folklore werewolves changed by other means entirely: a belt of wolfskin, an ointment rubbed on the body, a curse, a pact, drinking from a particular pool, sleeping outdoors on a certain night. The transformation was something done, chosen or inflicted, not something the calendar did to you.

The lunar trigger arrives properly with the films of the 1930s and 1940s, which needed a rule an audience could follow. It worked so well that it travelled backwards and everyone now assumes it was always there.

Which is a good demonstration of how folklore actually works. It is not ancient and fixed; it absorbs whatever the last convincing version added.

Taking it off

When you are done with it, do not scrub. Rubbing at a transfer takes skin off before it takes the design off, and leaves a patchy outline behind.

Baby oil, olive oil or an alcohol wipe on a cotton pad, held against it for half a minute, then wipe gently. It lifts in one go.

The tattoo

The design is a full standing figure rather than a head. It is upright on two legs with its clawed hands raised in front of it, jaws open, a spiked silver grey mane running from the crown down the length of the back.

It is worked in greys and black apart from two things: the eyes, which glow yellow, and the blood, which is on the hands and pooled on the ground under its feet.

16.5 x 8 cm, a long design that suits a forearm, calf or outer thigh.

Our article on where the werewolf myth came from covers the folklore. See the wolf temporary tattoo range.

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