I know this may sound crazy, but when it comes to temporary tattoos, you have to be careful. Normally you can just put them on and leave them there until they wear off naturally, but when it comes to Glow-in-the-Dark SpongeBob SquarePants temporary tattoos, you have to exercise especial caution, since they can quite literally burn your skin in bad, bad ways.

Two of our three youngsters opted to spend their 50-cent good-behavior money on these Glow in the Dark tats, and we thought nothing of it until a few days later when the boys began itching at them, and then complaining of pain and discomfort. It was a strange thing. We’ve applied literally hundreds of temporary tattoos on the kids, and we never thought we’d have to worry about leaving them on too long. Certainly we’ve never seen any printed warning about them from any of the manufacturers.

So we washed them off, and to our shock, we found raised hives in the areas where the glow-in-the-dark materials had been. You can see it in the pictures, as there’s a hive outline of a SpongeBob in each shot.

I’m not about to conclude that you can conclude from this experience that the folks at Nickelodeon are not duly diligent before the release of their toys and assorted fun accessories, nor can I say for certain that these tattoos were officially licensed. I’d like to think that the folks at Nickelodeon are noble enough to catch such a mistake, though I can’t say I’d be surprised either way.

I have Googled it, and found that it’s a rare, isolated problem with temporary tattoos, and I couldn’t find even a single other mention of problems with SpongeBob SquarePants tattoos, so that’s at least a bit comforting.

If you really want to see the discomfort in full glory, check the photos below. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t buy temporary tattoos; they’re lots of fun. We’ve bought them cheap and spendy in sizes from dime all the way up to full-head, and we’ve never had problems before.

If you do experience an itchy rash or hives from a temporary tattoo, you should be able to treat it with a simple over-the-counter cortisone cream, and anti-histamines may even cut it down a bit. Either way it’s not a big deal, so long as it doesn’t come to the point of open sores, and you don’t pick at it.

His hives from the tattoo caused him especial discomfort.

Dominic displays his raised rash in the shape of Spongbob himself, as well as his dissatisfaction with the discomfort.

Here's a close-up shot of the two sets of rashes our boys got from these bummer temporary tattoos. It didn't photograph well, but it really was a pretty serious rash they suffered.