Some see them as a sign of youth, while others find them a pain, but freckles have been made fashionable by the beauty industry time and time again since the 1960s.
More recently, fashion models such as Aleece Wilson and Adwoa Aboah have been made famous by the perfect archipelago of the little brown specks across their faces.
And since 1967, when Vogue published its first issue about achieving 'fake freckles', everybody from make-up artists to - more recently - TikTokers have been coming up with ways to get the look.
Enter: the fake freckles TikTok trend.
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An Australian reality TV star was left with permanent scarring and temporary blindness in one eye after trying out this TikTok beauty hack.
This has led people to question whether the so-called fake freckles trend is safe and how we can achieve the look safely.
What Is the TikTok Fake Freckles Trend?
The fake freckles trend has been around on TikTok for a couple of years now. Basically, beauty moguls have posted videos of themselves experimenting with all sorts - from henna ink to brown markers - to achieve fake freckles.
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Those techniques are relatively harmless, providing you're not allergic to the inks. But more recently, a dangerous and permanently damaging hack has trended on the social media site, which led Big Brother star, Tilly Whitfeld, to being hospitalised.
The new fake freckles hack on TikTok involves using a sewing needle and ink to essentially tattoo freckles on your face. The needle is used to dot the ink onto the desired area of the skin.
Is it safe?
Would you give yourself a tattoo with a needle you found at home? Probably not, so it's not advised you try and do essentially the same thing by using a sewing needle to paint freckles on your face - as Tilly would tell you.
What Happened to Tilly Whitfeld?
Aussie reality TV star Tilly Whitfeld was hospitalised after trying the new TikTok fake freckles hack.
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The celeb posted a photo of her scarred face on Instagram, and wrote in the caption:
"For those asking why I have my blue clay face mask on continuously throughout the show this is what my face looked like a week prior to entering the house hence why I always have makeup on and my skin is always covered.
"This is the result of attempting to remove scarring I inflicted on myself trying to replicate an at home beauty procedure I saw on a tik tok video 2 months before big brother... who bloody else would manage to do such a thing.
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"Please please don't try any "DIY" or "at home" beauty procedures I ended up in hospital with temporary loss of vision in my eye due to swelling and was very sick from the infection, not to mention my face was somewhat unrecognisable. Leave it to the professionals... thanks @bigbrotherau for being so super cute and supportive #bbau #bigbrotherau.
"Edit: this is deep below surface level scaring and dark pigmentation whilst I'm fortunate enough to not have keloid scaring and the surface of my skin is smooth, the pigmentation is very dark and obvious.
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"Edit again: I literally shoved needles deep into my skin this is not a rash lol"
According to HITC, Tilly used brown tattoo ink which she'd purchased off eBay to achieve the look. It turns out the ink she bought was counterfeit and had high levels of lead in it, which resulted in the nasty allergic reaction and infection on her face.
How do you get fake freckles safely?
There are lots of ways you can try out the fake freckles trend without ending up in hospital.
For example, there are lots of make-up pens out there you can use to dot some freckles on your face. You could use any light coloured eyebrow pencil, or there's even pencils specifically for creating freckles, such as Freck.
A needle and ink is definitely not the way to go and on this occasion, the old-fashioned, non-permanent method of using a make-up pencil is the safest bet.
Featured Image Credit: Unsplash/Solen FeyissaTopics: TikTok