HP Instant Ink – Tattoo or Printer Giveaway – Brick Lane, London

It’s a Saturday in London, we’re in Brick Lane so of course there’s something random afoot! This week I saw from London on the Inside that there was a free giveaway, giving people the chance to win either a free Instant Ink printer or a free tattoo. I love a freebie, so headed down with companion Anna who happens to have a birthday that very same day! What a treat!

The giveaway event started at 10am at Truman Brewery (next to Orange Buffalo) but some life admin got in the way and we arrived at around 2ish to see two people being tattooed and a crowd gathered around a mini podium with a big HP logo ‘pon it. We decided to queue up and put our names down to see what happened.

I take a while to make a decision when it comes to tattoos (I have one 3/4 sleeve so far) and I’m currently trying to think of more to add to an idea I’ve got with my current (and only) tattooist, Sam Ford at Silver Needles studio in Southend. She completed my 3/4 sleeve over a number of sessions and I’m keen to only go back to her for the foreseeable, so I wasn’t particularly wanting a tattoo unless it was super small – think a dot underneath one of my finger nail type of size. Anna was more up for a tattoo (plus it was her birthday so it would mark an occasion) and we were trying to brainstorm on the spot of what she would get, so after we signed up we grabbed some food nearby and sat on the floor eating, waiting and discussing slightly nervously.

I think we stood out a little as we were clad in bright colours and so we were selected pretty quickly by the organisers to come up to the HP podium – we hadn’t even got half way through lunch! I think the team wanted people who looked a bit nuts for the camera, but that works for us. We went up together which was slightly confusing as we wanted different things (me – printer…Anna – tattoo) but went with it and let them film while the roulette spun.

Slowly, slowly the computerised ‘wheel’ crept from tattoo to printer, back to tattoo…and finally (phew) settled on printer! We had a ‘printer victory’ photo taken and were handed one printer. The problem was that we don’t live together and so sharing would be a bit of a problem but we took it, sat back down with lunch and made of it what it was. A bit later on we saw another two ladies go up and they also won a printer, but were given two! So we went up and explained the situation again to the HP team who ended up handing us over a second printer so we could both take one home – thanks y’all!

This was a slightly strange giveaway but enjoyable to take part in – I have a feeling the tattoos were pre-booked or arranged in the morning as a lot of printers were being given out during the afternoon, but it’s a good promo for HP and I certainly appreciate my new Instant Ink pal. To make up for carrying them round all day we took some *ahem* beautiful pictures which, quite frankly, are amazing advertising and we should automatically be on the HP payroll!Forked by Stefpuff