While you know Bicycle for their decks of iconic playing cards, you may not know about their board games. 

We’re changing that today with a look at Tattoo Stories! 

In this silly game you and your friends will all be drawing up your best tattoos. There’s some pretty unique tattoos out there in the wild, and in Tattoo Stories you’ll be tasked with combining the vision of the client with your artistic abilities (or lack thereof!) in the hopes that they choose you to be their tattoo artist. 

How do you play Tattoo Stories?

Players will each take turns being the client who is in search for a tattoo artist for their tattoo concept.

The client will look at a selection of 10 cards with words on them each representing things that you might want in a tattoo. From this the client chooses a few cards that will be the inspiration for their tattoo and tells it to the other players who, as tattoo artists, have 3 minutes to take those elements and make them into a tattoo they think will appeal to the client.

Once everyone has completed their tattoo concepts, each artist takes a turn pitching their tattoo to the client, coming up with a story or reasoning as to why they drew the tattoo they did and why it is the perfect tattoo for the client. 

After the pitches, the client then awards tattoo cards to the individual(s) whom they believe incorporated the concept on the card the best. 

Then the next round begins with a new client.

After each player has been the client 2 times (or as many as agreed upon) the game is over and the player with the most tattoo cards wins.

What do we think?

We had a complete blast playing Tattoo Stories! So. Many. Laughs. 

Honestly, we were crying laughing so hard at some of the tattoos people drew and explained. 

We’ve played a lot of drawing games, (they’re probably my favorite style of light party game) and completely loved how this took the fun of Pictionary, and then combined it with the hilarity you find in more improvisational games like Snake Oil (another favorite!) or A Fake Artist Goes to New York.

The pitching is truly where the fun comes out. While this part definitely will be enjoyed by those who love to ham it up, it isn’t too much for the players who don’t like to stand up and perform. It’s less performative, and more explanatory, but the way players create stories for why they know their crazy tattoo is the perfect choice.

The better you know your group, the more hilarious these stories are going to be. When we played with my family, we were incorporating family history and various inside jokes that got everyone rolling. 

What’s even better, this game not only is great fun in person, but it is perfect to play over a video chat with your game group! 

All you need is just one person to have the game and everyone else grabs a paper and marker or a dry erase board. We played this as a group of 7 spread out amongst 4 different states! Just simply read the concept cards to the players on the video call, let the client choose what they want, and the rest plays like normal!

While the game itself is family friendly and you can definitely play this with younger kids (our 8 year old daughter had a good time!) incorporating multiple concepts into one drawing can be tricky so it’s a bit better suited to the preteen and older player. But when it comes to artistic skill, you don’t need to have that in high supply. Many times the drawings that look like they came from my 4 year old took home the most points because the pitch was spot on. 

Summary

Tattoo Stories is hilarious fun for any group. This is a great party game to play as everyone will love not only seeing the insane drawings people come up with, but the amazing pitches that accompany them. If you’re light on the artistic skills, fear not! Pitch the tattoo well enough and your client will have No Regerts!

If you are a fan of Pictonary style play and love improvisational games such as Snake Oil we highly recommend you give Tattoo Stories a try.

If you would like to get a copy of Tattoo Stories for your home, (and at sub $20 what’s the risk??) you can find it here on Amazon!

A special thank you to the good folks at Bicycle for sending us a copy of Tattoo Stories for review.

Game Info:
Title: Tattoo Stories
3-7 Players Ages 12+
Designer: Eric Slauson
Publisher: Games by Bicycle

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