ANNA Z TATTO is a semi-permanent tattoo studio in Delhi. We design, print, pack, and ship every tattoo ourselves. No dropshipping, no clip-art, no hidden factories. This is the full story.
In February 2024, one of our co-founders got a permanent tattoo on her collarbone — a small phrase in her grandmother's handwriting. Three months later, she realised the placement didn't work with her wardrobe, the font she'd chosen was slightly off, and the meaning felt different from what she'd intended when she sat in the chair.
Laser removal took the better part of a year across multiple sessions. The skin healed, but the process taught her something: most people who get permanent tattoos aren't sure. They're guessing. And there wasn't a credible way to try one on first.
She called her co-founder, who'd been running a small stationery and design studio in Jhandewalan, and asked: what if we made something that lasts exactly long enough to know if you mean it?
They researched the semi-permanent tattoo market and found it populated by two extremes: cartoon kids' stickers that fell off in a day, and unbranded imports from overseas marketplaces with no ingredient transparency. Nothing in the middle. Nothing made for adults who wanted their ink to look like ink.
So they started drawing. They worked with artists from the Delhi scene who could draw pieces that would look legitimate on skin. They sourced a plant-based cosmetic pigment supplier in Gujarat. They spent months iterating on formulation and adhesion until they had something that both founders were willing to wear themselves, repeatedly.
In August 2024, they opened a small third-floor studio in Jhandewalan and started taking orders.
The idea remains what it was from the beginning: tattoos that look like tattoos — for people who aren't ready to decide yet.
We design every piece in-house. We print and pack every order ourselves. We respond to every customer message personally. We're a small operation deliberately — it lets us keep quality control tight, artist briefs meaningful, and communication direct.
If you want to know more about our process, our ingredients, or our formulation approach, everything is documented in our FAQ and application guide.
Our studio is organised around four functions, each handled by dedicated team members:
Two co-founders, handling creative direction and operations respectively. Both are hands-on in day-to-day work — reviewing every design, speaking with customers, and wearing our products themselves before each batch ships.
Our illustrators have backgrounds in permanent tattooing, editorial illustration, and hand-lettering. Each piece in our ready-made catalogue is drawn in-house and attributed to a named artist (available on request). Custom commissions are assigned to the artist whose style best fits your brief.
Dedicated production handles printing, quality control, cutting, and packing. No tattoo leaves the studio without a QC check.
Email, WhatsApp, and phone are all answered by a real human on our team during studio hours (Mon–Sat, 10am–7pm). No chatbots, no outsourced ticket queues.
Ink is an impulse worth listening to — and worth testing. A tattoo is a form of self-authorship. People who want one are usually right to want it. But they're often wrong about the specific design, placement, or timing. Semi-permanent ink lets you test the impulse without paying the permanent price.
A tattoo should look like it belongs on a body. Not a lunchbox, not a birthday card, not a children's activity pack. The line between "real tattoo" and "temporary tattoo" shouldn't be an aesthetic one — it should be purely about duration. Our job is to make the distinction invisible from two feet away.
A fortnight is a fair trial. Long enough to wear it to a wedding, through a work week, on a trip, past a partner's family. Short enough to be gone before you're sick of it. We calibrate our products for exactly this window — long enough to commit, short enough to move on.
Transparency is cheaper than trust. Every ingredient we use is listed on this website. Every claim has a reason. Every price has a reason. Every policy is written in plain English. We'd rather tell you something uncomfortable (like: fingers fade in 3 days) than have you disappointed later.
Every design is drawn in our studio. No templates purchased off design marketplaces. No AI-generated pieces. No imports relabelled. If a piece looks generic, it's because we wanted it to — not because it was.
Custom work takes 3–5 working days because it takes 3–5 working days. If we're backed up, we'll tell you before you pay. If your idea needs more thinking, we'll say so and offer to discuss before starting.
We review ingredient sourcing for every batch before production. If a pigment batch doesn't meet our quality standards for consistency, adhesion, or skin compatibility in our own internal checks, we don't use it.
Our tattoos last 1–2 weeks. Not "up to six months." Not "permanent-feeling." Not "real tattoo replacement." Anyone selling a skin-transfer product claiming longer durations is either lying or using an ingredient you probably don't want on your body.
Every order ships from our Delhi studio, packed by someone whose name is listed above. We don't source from overseas factories, drop-ship from warehouses we've never seen, or rebrand someone else's products.
Email us, call us, WhatsApp us, walk into the studio. You'll get a reply from a specific human within 24 hours on email, usually under an hour on WhatsApp during business hours. No chatbots. No ticket queues.
Full INCI list is on every product page and in our FAQ. If you have a scientific question about our ingredients or formulation, email us and we'll do our best to answer.
No 500-pack "tattoo grab bags." No surprise designs. You see exactly what you're buying before you pay. Surprise sets are fine if you ask for one — but it's your request, not our default.
Our recommended age is 13+. We don't advertise in contexts aimed at younger children. Our branding is deliberately adult — editorial, not cartoonish — in part because it shouldn't feel like a birthday party accessory.
Water — base medium · Glycerin — vegetable-derived humectant · Genipin — active pigment compound, extracted from Gardenia jasminoides fruit · Xanthan Gum — natural viscosity modifier for even application · Phenoxyethanol — cosmetic preservative (max 1% concentration) · Citric Acid — pH stabiliser (trace amounts).
What's NOT in it: Parabens · Sulphates (SLS/SLES) · Phthalates · Mineral oil · Alcohol · Heavy metals · Artificial fragrance · Artificial colourants · PEGs · Formaldehyde · Animal-derived ingredients.
Genipin is a naturally-occurring compound extracted from the gardenia fruit (Gardenia jasminoides). It reacts with amino acids in the outermost layer of skin to produce a dark blue-black stain. It has a long history of use in food colouring and natural dyes across East Asia, and is listed as a cosmetic ingredient in standard cosmetic databases.
We formulate our ink to be gentle on skin and suitable for most people, including those with sensitive skin. We recommend a patch test before first use if you have a history of skin reactions to adhesives or cosmetic products. If you have specific health concerns or a known skin condition, consult your dermatologist before using our products.
For questions about our formulation, sourcing, or safety practices, email hello@annaztatto.shop.
We're on the third floor of a small commercial building at 2E/8 Jhandewalan Extension — four minutes on foot from Jhandewalan Metro (Blue Line, Exit 3). The space is 1,100 square feet: two drafting tables by the window, a printing station in the back, a packing counter near the door, and a small reception area with two chairs and usually the cat.
We chose Jhandewalan because (a) it's centrally located and easy for everyone to get to, (b) the building has good afternoon light, which matters when you're drawing, and (c) the rent left us enough margin to invest in ingredients rather than real estate.
You're welcome to visit during studio hours (Mon–Sat, 10am–7pm). No appointment needed for a casual drop-in, but we appreciate a WhatsApp heads-up if you want to meet a specific person. If you're bringing something for a custom commission — a family photograph, an heirloom, a handwritten letter — please handle it carefully on transit and let us know you're bringing originals so we can scan and return them the same day.
Directions from Jhandewalan Metro: Exit 3, walk west along Link Road for about 200 metres, turn right at the small park, enter the white-fronted building with a black door. Third floor, door marked "ANNA Z". Lift occasionally broken — the stairs are fine.
We're a young studio and we're happy to speak with journalists, editors, and content creators interested in semi-permanent tattoo trends, plant-based cosmetic pigment, the Indian skincare space, or small-studio design work. We can arrange studio visits, product samples for reviews, and interviews with our founders on request.
Press contact: hello@annaztatto.shop. Please include your publication and deadline in the subject line.
If everything above sounds like your kind of brand, we'd love to have you try something small from the flash sheet first. See how the ink feels on your skin, how long it lasts, how we pack an order. If it works for you, you know where to find us.
Browse Collection →