Kaia Gerber has been doing more than fostering puppies and organizing a virtual book club during her at-home quarantine in Los Angeles: When we talked to the 18-year-old Marc Jacobs model last week, she admitted feeling antsy about not being able to add to her tattoo collection while self-isolating — so she took matters into her own hands, DIY-style.
With parlors and piercing shops shut down in accordance with the current social-distancing mandates, Gerber came up with an ill-advised solution to scratch her body-ink itch without leaving her house: tattooing herself. "I've been having some tattoo withdrawals because I get them pretty consistently; it's like a hobby at this point," she said. "I missed getting them, so I actually gave myself a little stick-and-poke."
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For those unfamiliar with the manual stick-and-poke method of tattooing, it's pretty self-explanatory: The technique involves dipping a sterilized needle in ink and dotting it into the skin — which is exactly what Gerber did. "I didn't get too ambitious," the model explained to Glamour in a recent interview. "I gave myself a dot, just so I could be like, 'All right, I got a tattoo this month, I'm cool.'"
That said, definitely don't follow Gerber's lead and try an at-home tattoo yourself. It's not safe or sanitary, and breaking your skin barrier could leave you with a serious infection. Plus, just like a tattoo administered by a licensed professional, DIY body art is permanent — and decidedly uncool when you mess it up.