Replicating Lee's tattoos was a beast of its own. Though in real life, Lee added onto his tattoo collection throughout his relationship with Anderson, Collins's team wanted to have all of his designs done at the start of the show to not distract the viewer. "He wears about 30 to 35 tattoos, and it's a daily process of application on him," Collins says. Application of these special long-wearing tattoos includes printing the designs on a type of temporary tattoo paper, applying them to the body, then sealing them in a "company secret that encapsulates those tattoos." This keeps the designs protected from water, sweat, clothing, and touching. "When we put them on, they can actually wear them for a couple of days if they wanted to and not have any problems with anything washing off," Collins says. (The same tattoo technology was used to create Anderson's barbed-wire tattoo on her arm.)
While the temporary tattoos are meant to look like Lee's real artwork, if you were to inspect the designs closely, you'd notice a few key differences. This is because it's actually against copyright laws to depict exact designs in film and TV.
