Josh Sakhai

He grew up in Great Neck on Long Island, New York, in a Persian-Jewish family. Freethink writes that his religion forbids him from getting tattooed; FOX 5 New York writes that his later idea for fading tattoos grew out of his religious upbringing, in which tattoos are taboo.⁠[1][2][3][4][5]

He recalls that he and his co-founders all grew up in immigrant households (“We all grew up in immigrant households”), and that his family’s traditions and values felt like rules and restrictions; he describes himself as somewhat rebellious growing up, and says that getting a permanent tattoo was one of the things he could not do. Freethink likewise writes that he describes himself as somewhat rebellious growing up and felt that his family’s traditions limited how he could be in the world and express himself. A Sinclair Broadcast Group report writes that in the immigrant household where he grew up, tattoos were dismissed as a Western phenomenon and seen as an affront to his family’s cultural values.⁠[3][1][6]

He says that, for him, rules were limits on self-expression and that permanent tattoos were one of those rules, but he also admits: “But really I was scared.”⁠[5]

A page published by the NYUNew York UniversityNew York University is a private university in New York City, founded in 1831, and one of the largest private universities in the United States.Open the full entry Stern School of Business in April 2016, quoting Inc., writes that Ephemeral was founded in 2014 by a team of New York University students and was developing a tattoo ink that would let consumers remove unwanted body art safely, easily and effectively. The company history on Ephemeral’s website writes that in 2014 the company’s Ph.D. founders began work at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering on an ink that fades naturally.⁠[7][8]

He recalls that as a freshman at New York University he watched friends get tattoos, some happy with them and some regretful, which led him to ask whether tattoos had to last forever. He says that once he was out on his own in college, “it was time to walk the walk of this rebel I said I was,” but he was intimidated and imagined a tattoo with all the appeal of one but less of the long-term commitment; he says many people called the founders crazy, and admits “they’re not wrong.” Freethink writes that he nearly got a tattoo in college but backed out at the last minute because he was too nervous.⁠[4][3][1]

A Sinclair Broadcast Group report writes that despite a rebellious streak that often led him to push against his parents’ restrictions, he found in college that he could not match his actions to his words when it came to getting a tattoo; he says: “I was scared. I didn’t know what I wanted to get, let alone if I even really wanted to get one.” The report writes that a colleague’s poor tattoo-removal experience and his own hesitation kept him from getting a tattoo, that his interest in tattoos as self-expression persisted, and that with classmates at New York University he questioned why tattoos had to be permanent.⁠[6]

Sources differ on the origin of the idea for Ephemeral: a 2015 article from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering writes that it came from the personal experience of Seung Shin, who had liked tattoos since childhood, whose parents strongly opposed them because they are permanent, and who got a tattoo and then had it removed by laser, calling it “the worst experience of my life”; a 2016 article in Washington Square News, which names Seung Shin as Ephemeral’s chief executive, writes that he came up with the idea while studying chemical and biomolecular engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and pitched it to his classmates Brennal Pierre, Vandan Shah and Anthony Lam; a February 2021 article in Dazed writes that it began with his own questions as a freshman; an April 2021 article in Dazed writes that it grew out of co-founder Jeff Liu’s regrettable infinity-sign tattoo and his later attempts to remove it; and in a RealSelf article he says that the idea came after a former team member had to have permanent tattoos removed.⁠[9][10][4][11][12]

Sources also list the co-founders differently: a page of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute lists Ephemeral’s founders as Anthony Lam (Tandon ’15), Joshua Sakhai (Stern ’18), David Shin (Tandon ’15), Brennal Pierre, PhD (Tandon ’15) and Vandan Shah, PhD (Tandon ’16); Nylon wrote in 2021 that he, Brennal Pierre, Vandan Shah and Jeff Liu were Ephemeral’s four founders; FOX 5 New York writes that the “made-to-fade” process is the brainchild of him and the shop’s two co-founders; and in a July 2021 letter Ephemeral’s chief executive Jeff Liu names three co-founders, “Vandan, Brennal and Josh.”⁠[13][3][5][14]

A May 18, 2015 article from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering writes that the Ephemeral team won the $75,000 grand prize of the $200K Entrepreneurs Challenge held by the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the NYU Stern School of Business, as well as the Technology Venture Competition award; the eight-month competition began with 249 teams from seven New York University schools and narrowed to 14 finalists, who gave a three-minute pitch and a video, with a judges’ question-and-answer session on May 1. The article lists the team as Jason Candreva, Brennal Pierre and Vandan Shah (all Ph.D. students in chemical and biomolecular engineering), Anthony Lam and Seung Shin (both B.S. students in chemical and biomolecular engineering) and him (a B.S. student at Stern).⁠[9]

Washington Square News writes that he helped the team win first place in the Technology Venture category of the W. R. Berkley Innovation Lab $200K Entrepreneurs Challenge. A February 2016 article on student entrepreneurs by the NYU Stern School of Business carries a photo of him with teammates holding a check for $75,000.⁠[10][15]

On May 18, 2015, the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute announced nine teams selected for the 2015 NYU Summer Launchpad, Ephemeral among them, listing its team as Anthony Lam (Engineering ’15), Joshua Sakhai (Stern ’18) and Seung Shin (Engineering ’15). The announcement describes Ephemeral as a tattoo platform that lets tattoo lovers and hopefuls control the lifetime of their tattoos, proposing a safe application method and a bio-removal system as alternatives to laser removal, which it calls painful, costly and ineffective.⁠[16]

An Inc. excerpt on an April 7, 2016 page of the NYU Stern School of Business writes that Ephemeral did its research during the NYU Launchpad program the previous summer, when the team talked to hundreds of potential users and ran a lemonade stand in Washington Square Park; it found that 60% of people without tattoos wanted one but had not gotten one, and the excerpt says that people are “hungry for ink” but are held back by its permanence.⁠[17]

A February 24, 2016 article on student entrepreneurs by the NYU Stern School of Business writes that Josh Sakhai was the founder and chief financial officer of Ephemeral, a company aiming to make tattoos easily removable; his concentrations were statistics and computer science with a minor in mathematics, and he was involved in the Stern Inter-Club Council (Data/Ops), the NYU Stern Street Team and Tech@Stern. Washington Square News wrote in April 2016 that he was Ephemeral’s chief financial officer and a sophomore studying in both Stern and CAS. A 2015 article from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering instead writes that he was majoring in math, finance and computer science.⁠[15][10][9]

Asked what he wished he had known when he started out as an entrepreneur, he says that many people will have strong opinions about a venture and that experts’ advice is valuable, but “no one will know your business/market/industry like you do,” so founders should stay true to their own instincts.⁠[15]

On April 6, 2016, the NYU Stern School of Business published a page saying that Ephemeral, which he co-founded, had been named one of Inc.’s 2016 “Coolest College Startups.” The Inc. excerpt on the page lists the co-founders as Joshua Sakhai (19), Seung Shin (22), Anthony Lam (22), Vandan Shah (27) and Brennal Pierre (34), and writes that the company expected a finalized product within 12 to 18 months and had already won other competitions, including one at NYU Stern.⁠[7]

A Washington Square News article of April 18, 2016 quotes his hopes for the company: “Five years down the road, I hope we’ve substantially dented the tattoo industry, its culture and its future.”⁠[10]

The company history on Ephemeral’s website writes that in 2017 the founders identified the key components of the ink, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved for use in other products, and set manufacturing processes for tattoo safety; in 2018 the early formulas could only handle simple lines and dots which lasted only days at first and later a couple of months, and the next goal was a longer-lasting ink.⁠[8]

Dazed writes that he calls the early testing period from early 2018 to mid-2019 the “morse code era.” A Sinclair Broadcast Group report writes that in the years leading up to Ephemeral’s opening he tested the ink on his own arm, mostly as simple dots and dashes of which no trace remains. RealSelf writes that, as he describes it, the founders tested more than 50 formulations on their own skin, that the initial formulas faded more quickly than they wanted, so the team spent six years working to increase the ink’s longevity to a year, and that they partnered with a leading dermatologist to initiate an institutional review board (IRB)-approved clinical trial. In a Hypebae article he says that the team tested more than 200 tattoos on themselves and that the company had initiated an IRB-approved clinical trial to scientifically validate the safety and efficacy of the ink.⁠[4][6][12][18]

On June 22, 2018, the Thiel Foundation announced the 20 members of the 2018 class of the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry; he is listed 13th, with the project “Ephemeral Tattoos” and the field “Consumer biotechnology.” The announcement says that he is a co-founder of Ephemeral Tattoos, a company developing a suite of semi-permanent tattoo inks, applied by tattoo artists, that disappear completely on their own.⁠[2]

The announcement says that the Thiel Fellowship, launched in 2011, encourages talented young people to pursue big ideas and start companies instead of attending college, and that fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network of technology founders, investors and scientists.⁠[2]

In a July 2021 letter, Ephemeral’s chief executive Jeff Liu writes that he met the team in 2020, when it was on the brink of a technical breakthrough, and was drawn to the founders’ shared experiences and determination; the letter says that nearly seven years earlier the founders had become obsessed with asking why tattoos are permanent and whether they could be made to fade, noting that tattooing had seen almost no innovation beyond painful laser removal and temporary tattoos.⁠[14]

A February 15, 2021 article in Dazed writes that he had launched Ephemeral with chief executive Jeff Liu and the chemical engineers Brennal Pierre and Vandan Shah and was preparing to open the company’s first brick-and-mortar shop in Williamsburg, New York, that spring; he says the secret is in the ink, which his team developed alongside dermatologists to ensure safety and efficacy and that he “cannot wait to see what people do with it.” He says Ephemeral aims to remove the intimidation for first-timers: “We’ve catered an environment to first-timers that says no to intimidation.”⁠[4]

FOX 5 New York wrote on March 22, 2021 that Ephemeral Tattoo, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, was set to open on Thursday, March 25, 2021, with bookings already three months out; the report writes that after six years, 60 ink formulations and one pandemic the founders decided to open the studio, and that the process mimics that of a permanent tattoo but the ink is gone in nine to 15 months. He says: “Every single material we use is already FDA approved for safety.”⁠[5]

In a March 25, 2021 article in Hypebae he explains that the ink is bio-absorbable, with particles small enough for the body to remove over time; he says the ink was developed by Dr. Vandan Shah and Dr. Brennal Pierre, who are also part of Ephemeral’s founding team.⁠[18]

In a Coveteur article he says that traditional ink goes into the layer just below the outer skin, whereas “Ephemeral tattoo ink particles, in contrast, break down over time” until the body can remove them, and that the ink is made of medical-grade, bioabsorbable and biocompatible polymers and pigments routinely used in foods, cosmetics and other products. He says there were many points at which the founders questioned whether they could ever build a sustainable business, but that whenever they talked to friends, family or strangers about Ephemeral, their eyes would light up; he says the studio aims to make the tattoo industry more inclusive and approachable to everyone, including those previously turned off by permanence: “Those fearing permanence but getting excited by tattoos are our target demographic.” He adds that some customers use Ephemeral as a trial before a permanent tattoo and others to see where they would prefer the tattoo; he observes a continued trend toward fine-line and black work with more visible placements, and an increase in DIY tattoos, which he thinks was likely sparked by people staying indoors with little else to do; and he says that after nearly a year of being locked away from human connection, the studio gave people a chance to “feel human.”⁠[19]

A Nylon article of April 9, 2021 writes that six years passed from the idea to the opening in 2021; he says, “We developed over 50 different formulations over the years to get to where we are now.” Freethink wrote on April 18, 2021 that he and three college friends from New York University spent more than six years developing the ink and tested more than 50 formulas, and that the final formula was found by Brennal Pierre and Vandan Shah, each of whom earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from New York University. FOX 5 New York gives the number of formulations as 60.⁠[3][1][5]

In an April 30, 2021 article in RealSelf he sums up Ephemeral as “The full tattoo experience, minus the permanence.” He explains that traditional ink clumps together into particles too large for the body to remove, so the body walls off the area and the ink stays, whereas Ephemeral’s particles break down over time until the body can remove them; how the tattoo fades varies by person and depends on skin type, where it is applied and whether it is cared for correctly, and the skin in the area may look lighter or darker. An editor’s note in the article states that people with skin tones of IV or higher on the Fitzpatrick scale tend to be more prone to hyper- or hypopigmentation. He says the tattoo can be covered with permanent or Ephemeral ink six months after the original; depending on the design, a tattoo by one of the company’s top-tier artists costs between $175 and $450, with the final price set in the studio; the company sees the fading as a premium, and the price reflects years of novel scientific research, supports the studio experience and gives its artists quality of life and financial stability; he also says the company planned to open studios outside New York City.⁠[12]

A Sinclair Broadcast Group report of July 15, 2021 writes that he called the response to the studio “humbling,” with thousands of people having made reservations; he says the biggest research challenge was making the tattoos last longer: “That was actually the hardest part, getting the ink to stay in the skin.” He says the experience is “exactly the same” as getting a permanent tattoo and that keeping it authentic was important to the team.⁠[6]

BloombergBloomberg L.P.Bloomberg L.P. is a global financial technology, data and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981. It began by providing terminal services that deliver data, analytics and news to financial professionals, and launched Bloomberg News in 1990. Michael Bloomberg has pledged the vast majority of the company’s profits to his philanthropic organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies.Open the full entry writes that Ephemeral had raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Anthos Capital, four months after opening its first studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; the company said appointments had doubled every month since the studio opened, with a waitlist of seven to eight months.⁠[20]

A letter published the same day by chief executive Jeff Liu announces that the company had completed its Series A round, with new investors including Anthos Capital, Gaingels, The Syndicate and Lauren Maillian, and with participation from existing investors Primary Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and Techstars; the letter also announces the opening of a studio in Los Angeles that fall.⁠[14]

Dazed wrote in February 2021 that he had gotten at least 40 Ephemeral tattoos, his favorite being a palm-sized “Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix” on his leg, which has since faded, to his sadness; he calls himself a “Harry Potter nerd.” He has no permanent tattoos. A week before his Dazed interview his mother, to his shock, asked for an Ephemeral tattoo; she had been devastated by his first Ephemeral tattoo and had come, through impermanence, to see “the beauty of tattooing,” which he calls “one of my biggest wins.”⁠[4][6]

He recalls being a “skinny kid” whom tattoo artists treated dismissively, and leaving those shops humiliated.⁠[4]

Freethink wrote in April 2021 that he was 24, that he is not a tattoo artist and that he has no tattoos.⁠[1]

The company history on Ephemeral’s website writes that in 2022 the ink was still black only and work continued on vibrancy and on larger, more complex designs; in 2023 the company had record growth, with its community reaching 20,000; from 2024 Ephemeral ink was available exclusively through partner tattoo artists; and in 2025 the company launched FadeMark, a product for radiotherapy, and introduced Gen 3 Black Ink for more predictable fading.⁠[8]

Ephemeral: Official website: https://ephemeral.tattoo/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[22]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuasakhai/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]