Wish You Were Here
The Hottest New Souvenir? A Travel Tattoo.
People are commemorating their travels with permanent ink.
I’m two minutes into my chat with celebrity tattoo artist Jonathan “JonBoy” Valena in his new studio, located right inside the lobby of the Dream Downtown Hotel in the Meatpacking District, when there’s a knock on the door. It’s a woman, with a martini in hand, asking about appointments.
“I left my husband and son upstairs,” she says before admitting she doesn’t have any tattoos. She asks if he’s good at doing anything small or minimalistic. He jokingly tells her to watch Season 3, Episode 9 of The Kardashians. (In this episode, he gives Kim her secret lip ink after she hosts SNL.) She jots down his info, spills a bit of her drink on the floor, and says she’ll “be back” before leaving New York.
It’s a fleeting interaction, but it captures a rising trend perfectly: Body art is the hottest new souvenir. Rather than a shot glass or magnet, more people are getting permanent ink to remember their travels.
The Rise Of The Souvenir Tattoo
On TikTok, the search for “souvenir tattoos” yields thousands of results, including hibiscus flowers from Hawaii, lemons from Italy, a fan from Japan, or marble architectural columns from Greece. Kimpton Hotels recently teamed up with Tiny Zaps to offer location-specific tats at its properties. Now vacation memories can live on beyond scrapbooks and Instagram dumps — ink lets you wear your travels on your skin.
I’ve been doing this for years. When I studied abroad in Barcelona, I got the female symbol tattooed right after attending the International Women’s March. Years later, I got a domino on my forearm with my sister in Puerto Rico to honor our culture on that particular trip — then my parents surprised us by getting the same design from the same parlor during their solo trip a few months later. Tattoos tell a story, and sometimes that story is the trip itself.
Enter JonBoy
As someone who’s followed JonBoy on Instagram since before he gave Kendall Jenner that infamous white dot on her finger in 2015, I thought nothing could be more New York than getting inked by a celeb-approved artist in the heart of Manhattan. (Besides the KarJenners, he’s also tatted Justin Bieber, Drew Barrymore, and Ariana Madix, among others.)
It’s a sentiment JonBoy, who recently got a tat while visiting Japan, relates to. “[Your body is] like your passport,” he says. “I don’t want to ever give up my passport because it’s got all those stamps. [Tattoos] feel the same, you know?”
“I can look at a tattoo and be like, ‘I remember where I was in my life.’”
When he first moved to the city in 2010, he frequented Dream Downtown’s nightclubs. Now, his books are open by appointment only, right in the heart of the hotel. You can check in, hit up the lobby bar, peek out at the pool, and wander past his curtain-clad studio all within the same stone’s throw.
“There’s just something about [New York City], especially if you love fashion and dining and just connecting with people,” he says. The latter is why he loves tattooing in particular. Whether you’re an A-lister like the Biebers or a guest at the hotel popping in with a martini in hand, you can expect the same service.
“What's it mean to be a celebrity? To celebrate someone. So whether you’re from the nameless to the famous, I think you should be celebrated,” he says. His rates are premium, starting at a $1,000 minimum per tattoo, but the connections he makes while doing his work are priceless.
“You tattoo because you want to be part of someone’s story. Living in a big city sometimes it feels lonely, but when I’m in the chair hanging out with someone, I’m just like, ‘Wow, this is my purpose,’” he says. “It’s crazy that I get access to someone’s life for that moment [when tattooing them] that you normally wouldn’t. It’s such an energy exchange.”
Honor A Trip With Ink
Like anything else, tattoo trends also come and go — he thinks cybersigilism is having a flash-in-the-pan moment right now, and recalls the watercolor ink era of the 2010s — but when it’s permanently on your body, all that matters is that you love it.
JonBoy’s signature minimalist style and the simple script are surely timeless. But if you want something to commemorate a trip to New York City? He suggests something simple, like an apple, the skyline, or “NY.” “There was a time I was doing pizza tattoos,” he says with a laugh. He himself has a “T” in The New York Times font as a nod to the city.
Even though some stars are getting their tattoos removed — ahem, Pete Davidson — JonBoy doesn’t think ink is fading out by any means. “They’re souvenirs,” he says, gesturing to his arms. “I can look at a tattoo and be like, ‘I remember where I was in my life and who I thought I was and who I am today, and celebrate that. I can think, ‘Wow, I’m a better version of myself since that tattoo.’”
And I can truthfully say that a cheap fridge magnet, T-shirt, or shot glass has never made me feel like that.
