retroremakes
December 22nd, 2009, 06:05
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2009/12/500x_purikura_sheets.jpgPrint Club (http://gizmodo.com/tag/printclub/) sticker booths, which still exist in some malls and big box stores, spawned a generation of Japanese young people who were referred to using the Japanese word for the machines: Purikura.
When the local K-Mart got a Print Club machine in 2000, I was stoked. Why was it so appealing to acquire sheet after sheet of these tiny stickers? I couldn't tell you. But I was into it. I admit it. A tiny sheet of photos of me and my best friend with our heads next to a cartoon drawing of a pineapple? Sign me up! I didn't have a digital camera at the time, and Polaroid film was pricy. These little doodads were a nice—if not completely satisfying—way to get quick photos of my nearest and dearest. And who doesn't love pineapples?
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/12/purikura_booth.jpgPrint Club machines started popping up in Japan in the mid-1990s, but didn't make it to these shores until around 1999. All the kids I babysat back then had their school binders covered in them. I swear, put a sticky back on anything and it turns into crack for 11-year-old girls.
I still see these booths at malls sometimes, but they've lost their excitement for me. In the far reaches of my desk drawer, I still have a few Print Club sheets, each with a handful of stickers still on them. Occasionally I'll stick one onto a birthday card or a book, but I try to use them sparingly. One day, I know I'll run out. [Photoguide.jp (http://photoguide.jp/txt/Print_Club)]
Anna Jane Grossman will be with us for the next few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) (http://www.amazon.com/Obsolete-Encyclopedia-Once-Common-Things-Passing/dp/0810978490) and the creator of ObsoleteTheBook.com (http://obsoletethebook.com/), she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net (http://annajane.net/). Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane (http://twitter.com/annajane).
Purikura sticker sheets image by slavin_fpo (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purikura.jpg), and Purikura booth shot by Brian Adler (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purikura_Booth_2.JPG), both from Wikimedia Commons under CC license
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/m5WfTsfdg9I/i-was-a-print-club-sticker-junkie)
When the local K-Mart got a Print Club machine in 2000, I was stoked. Why was it so appealing to acquire sheet after sheet of these tiny stickers? I couldn't tell you. But I was into it. I admit it. A tiny sheet of photos of me and my best friend with our heads next to a cartoon drawing of a pineapple? Sign me up! I didn't have a digital camera at the time, and Polaroid film was pricy. These little doodads were a nice—if not completely satisfying—way to get quick photos of my nearest and dearest. And who doesn't love pineapples?
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/12/purikura_booth.jpgPrint Club machines started popping up in Japan in the mid-1990s, but didn't make it to these shores until around 1999. All the kids I babysat back then had their school binders covered in them. I swear, put a sticky back on anything and it turns into crack for 11-year-old girls.
I still see these booths at malls sometimes, but they've lost their excitement for me. In the far reaches of my desk drawer, I still have a few Print Club sheets, each with a handful of stickers still on them. Occasionally I'll stick one onto a birthday card or a book, but I try to use them sparingly. One day, I know I'll run out. [Photoguide.jp (http://photoguide.jp/txt/Print_Club)]
Anna Jane Grossman will be with us for the next few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) (http://www.amazon.com/Obsolete-Encyclopedia-Once-Common-Things-Passing/dp/0810978490) and the creator of ObsoleteTheBook.com (http://obsoletethebook.com/), she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net (http://annajane.net/). Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane (http://twitter.com/annajane).
Purikura sticker sheets image by slavin_fpo (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purikura.jpg), and Purikura booth shot by Brian Adler (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Purikura_Booth_2.JPG), both from Wikimedia Commons under CC license
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/3aNl0R2xIsYcqP4J_TtVkscBQd8/0/di</img> (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/3aNl0R2xIsYcqP4J_TtVkscBQd8/0/da)
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/m5WfTsfdg9I/i-was-a-print-club-sticker-junkie)