In tattoo culture, Friday the 13th is “flash day.” It’s when fans line up for discount, pre-designed tattoos from their favorite artists. These designs are typically tiny, black and white illustrations that are tattooed on your arms. And on social media, there’s a term for this style of tattoos: Tatted like a Chipotle bag.
For those that don’t know, the Chipotle bag is covered in fun illustrations pertaining to the brand’s ingredients and beliefs around sustainability and serving “food with integrity.” It’s one of Chipotle’s most iconic brand elements.
Beyond the bag, Chipotle is also known for supercharging the superfans, making them feel seen and heard by turning fan insights, behaviors, and inside jokes into moments that celebrate their brand love.
So we took this fan-originated meme and turned into our “Tatted Like A Chipotle Bag” flash promo, transforming 2025’s only Friday the 13th into a time-bound, IRL participation engine, translating cultural chatter into incremental traffic and outsized earned reach.
Our “Tatted Like A Chipotle Bag” flash promo stretched across social, IRL, and custom products, turning a social meme into a breakthrough brand moment in culture.
We started by leaning into the “Lookalike” Trend, first popularized in a viral Timothee Chalomet lookalike contest in NYC. In our version, we created flyers for a Chipotle Bag lookalike contest, happening on Friday the 13th, putting a spotlight on anyone tatted like a Chipotle Bag.
Then, we tapped into the visual language of tattoos, covering our burrito foil in flash tattoos, revealing the details in a classic tattoo reveal manner by swapping in our own Chipotle napkin to wipe away excess ink and reveal the final “tat”. In our case, that was our BOGO message. We also worked with some of our favorite Chipotle bags/Tattooed Influencers to drive awareness.
And on Friday the 13th, we celebrated our newest ChipotDay (that’s “Chipotle speak” for “holiday”).
The rules were simple: come into restaurants and show us your ink and you’d get a BOGO entree offer on the spot. And our definition of “tattoo” was open enough to include temporary tattoos, “tattoos” drawn with a sharpie, and even Chipotle bags taped to your arms.
Additionally, we created a unique flash sheet of Chipotle-themed temporary tattoos. These were available exclusively at 13 Chipotle restaurants in major markets nationwide.
Chipotle’s Flash Tattoo cultural activation proved once again that when brands listen to their fans they win big.
“Tatted Like a Chipotle Bag” wasn’t Chipotle’s idea—it was the internet’s. Born from fan tweets and TikToks obsessing over tattoo sleeves resembling Chipotle’s iconic to-go bags, Chipotle turned the hype into a temporary tattoo drop and flash one-hour BOGO that sparked lines out the door and record breaking engagement.
The results outperformed all expectations - on social and in sales. Drawing crowds nationwide, Chipotle achieved its highest-ever sales during a non-peak hour (3–4pm local time), and its highest one-day social volume in over two years. The brand’s Instagram announcement post is Chipotle’s most-viewed and most-shared platform post of the year.
With a social-first, fan-inspired strategy, the campaign drove:
Proof that bold, unexpected, fan-fueled ideas can ink unforgettable success. And we've already started driving anticipation for how we might show up for future Friday the 13ths.
