Patients from a children’s hospital in New Zealand will be receiving a unique treat from an airbrush artist.
As promised on Facebook, Auckland-based veteran artist Benjamin Lloyd will be giving realistic-looking temporary tattoos to kids at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital.
The airbrush artist of 10 years initially shared pH๏τos of the fake custom “tattoo” of skulls and roses he gave to a friend’s son on Facebook. The young boy can be seen beaming with a smile as he is inked. He also posted a pledge along with the pH๏τos and video: “50 likes and i’ll go to Starship Hospital and tat (sic) all the kids up.”
Within 24 hours, netizens responded overwhelmingly with over 400,000 likes and almost 10,000 comments.
Committed to honoring his promise, Lloyd has been in contact with hospital administrators to schedule the tattoo marathon. He is currently preparing for it by creating a variety of stencils for the kids.
In the past he has given a number of children the airbrushed artwork to help with their self esteem.
“The kids are so amazed. As soon as they get the tattoo it boosts their confidence,” he told the NZ Herald.
The thought of giving sick children the same much-needed confidence gave Lloyd the idea of sharing his talents with the pediatric hospital. Using non-toxic ink that can easily be washed off in the shower, his temporary tattoos usually takes just a few minutes to finish.
A New Zealand artist is hoping to give sick kids a confidence boost by offering temporary airbrushed tattoos to children at an Auckland hospital.
Benjamin Lloyd asked for 50 likes on Facebook when he floated the idea to visit children at Starship Hospital and offer them temporary sleeves on Sunday night.
Instead, he got more than 416,000.
“I woke up and it had just gone viral. Now it has popped up on about 20 million people’s pages,” he said.
Mr Lloyd has been airbrushing “everything on anything” for 10 years, mostly working with adults who are unsure whether to get permanent tattoos.
But when his stepson one day asked for a temporary tat, he found the reaction intriguing.
“When I was doing children, the reaction was just amazing,” he said.
“After they had it they would walk around, chins up, so confident and so proud.
“You can’t help but just love that, so I just thought I want to go where there’s heaps of kids and do that.”
Starship Hospital has since been in contact with Mr Lloyd and has organised a meeting tomorrow to put a plan in motion.
Mr Lloyd said he was in the process of creating a range of different stencils for the kids to choose from.
“They’ve got nothing to do, they’re stuck in their room all day and I would just love to go and put a smile on their faces,” he said.
