OVERVIEW: Tattoo Divas

The Tattoo Divas were an edgy new doll line that debuted in fall 2013. They were made by Toy Shock and as far as I can tell, were only sold in select Toys R Us stores in the US, as well as outside the US. They retailed for $19.99 each.

They stand about 13" tall in their heels, so they're pretty big. They're not high quality dolls. The bodies are pretty lightweight and articulation is limited to neck, shoulders and hips.

Tania boxed

Each doll comes with an outfit, bag, tattoo sheet, a tattoo "gun" and four markers. The dolls have multiple tattoos drawn on their bodies, and the gimmick is that you can color and recolor them very easily, by using the markers, which load into the tattoo gun. It's an amusing concept, but I can see why these didn't really take off. There are still some rather narrow-minded people who wrinkle their nose at fishnet stockings, as if that means anything about the person/doll wearing them, so creating a tattoo-inspired product for kids? Yeah, I can hear the complaints now.

Shary, Tania and Gina

The initial assortment of girls was blonde Abie (who I didn't get), Asian Shary, tan Gina (I consider her Hispanic, but she could be many things), and gothy Tania. Shary has the only unique mold of the line, but the other three girls are still pretty, even with the same headmold. Shary has black hair and gray eyes, Tania has dark brown hair with lavender streaks and brown eyes, and Gina has orangey-red hair and green eyes.

The hair on the girls is nylon and pretty thin, but it's not the worst quality ever.

Each doll has painted on panties and a bra, but the bra only covers the front, because they all have backpiece tattoos of some kind. Of the first four dolls, I liked Shary's snake and dragon tattoos best.

Coloring the tattoos!

Sadly, the marker color assortment wasn't wide. I had black, green, orange, purple and one pink (pretty sure that one came with Tania).

I experimented with Shary first. Her tattoos were the most fun to color. The snake and dragon are awesome. The dragon came out darker, as did the flowers on her chest. The snake was the first one I tried. It's harder to make the thinner, smaller tattoos brighter-colored, but I actually like it a bit lighter.

Gina I was concerned about, since her skin is darker and the orange isn't that dark. Two of her tattoos are tigers, which don't really offer much creativity. You could try a pink or purple tiger, but the colors don't show that well. But a couple coats of orange and it's dark enough. Hers just aren't very interesting to color.

Akira and Xendra

I had problems with Tania, because that pink is too light to work. I did her stars and flower in purple, green and black, and they looked okay, but the unicorn didn't work. I tried it in black with a purple mane, but the black started pooling together and it looked bad.

Thankfully, these wash right off! They really do work. Once they're on and dry, they won't come off, unless your hands are damp. If you hold the doll for awhile, that color will come off, because your hand will sweat. But mostly, they stay on. And they wash right off with water. Very easy. No mess at all.

So I thought that was the end of Tattoo Divas, but when I did a bit of Googling in preparation for this overview, I learned that two more girls had been added to the line for sale outside the US only. With the help of one of my fave friends, I was able to get Akira and Xendra in my collection!

Akira is the same mold as Shary, but with blue eyes and white hair. She has blue and yellow streaks in her right pigtail and a pink streak in her left pigtail. I love her shoe mold. It's very pretty, which is why I tried not to hide it with the furry legwarmers too much.

Xendra is the same mold as the other girls. She has black, pale pink and bright blue hair and blue eyes a little darker than Akira's. I really love Xendra. Great color combination in the hair and her face is very pretty. Her little skimpy outfit and giant boots are cute, too. She has a fab scorpion tattoo on her back, which sadly is covered by her shirt.

I should mention that there are staining issues with these girls, particularly Tania and Xendra. Xendra has pink stains on her legs from her socks, black on her belly and shoulders from her skirt and top, and black on one thigh from how her bag laid across her in her box.

I think the Tattoo Divas are a fun and very unique line. Not the highest quality, but it's not a big name company, so I wouldn't expect it.

Unfortunately, they've become hard to find for American collectors. If you have a friend in the UK, ask them for help getting Xendra and Akira. They're pretty affordable there. An ebay seller has Shary and Abie, but they're $50 each. *shudder*

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.