Want to Smell Like A Tattoo? Byredo’s New Fragrance Gets Inked

Sure, we love a good spritz of floral, fruity, or woodsy scents, but it's a rare feat when a fragrance breaks out of the predictable perfume rankings. New this month, Byredo salutes the scent of ink—yes, ink—with a unisex fragrance called M/MINK, a collaboration between Byredo's creative director Ben Gorman and French creatives, M/M Paris. The pairing spawned a scent which could've smelled like office supplies but instead, using a block of Korean ink (with a smell that reminded Gorman of tattoo ink), a photo of Japanese calligraphy, and an M/M ink drawing as inspiration, the team conjured up a fragrance blending patchouli leaf, amber, and clover honey with a just noticeable sterile, stone-scented undertone. The result delivers a strong, more darkly exotic than expected, a punch that's far from bad-tattoo-shop cheesy. Luckily, M/MINK is a temporary essence and something you won't regret—unlike that star you got tatted the summer before college.