Plenty of people get tattoos of their favourite plushies, but the Stuffed Memories project reverses the roles by offering body art for soft toys. Its expert embroiderers create designs expressing the bond between owner and companion – a thoughtful undertaking that’s been featured at Dutch Design Week 2025 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and through an exhibition at Tokyo bookstore and gallery Tiger Mountain. The project isn’t currently taking new orders, but a gallery of past works can be viewed online.
Stuffed animals are for everyone now. Studies have found that well over a third of grown-ups in Western countries sleep with a plushie, and the ‘kidult’ market accounts for a hefty and growing share of the global toy industry’s revenue. But the rest of the world still has a lot of catching up to do to equal Japan’s cuddly toy culture. In this country, the ubiquitous plushies are (almost) people – at least judging by the spectrum of services geared towards soft toys. Here are some of the more inventive offerings.
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