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Make your own fishy face mask thanks to a Japanese university

Katie Pask May 16, 2020
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There’ll be no need to fish for compliments with this mask mod!

Tired of wearing a boring, plain old white mask when you go out for your essential errands these days? Running out of old socks? Well, thanks to Osaka’s Kindai University, you can now make your mask stand out from the crowd by turning it into a tuna.

The design may have you asking a couple of questions. The first of which is most likely “…why?”, and the answer to that is quite simple: because it stands out! If you want to get noticed, you absolutely need this mask. Also, Kindai University just happens to be famous for its tuna production and Kindai tuna is very well known. When asked, a representative from the university commented, “When you see this mask, you’re sure to get a good chuckle out of it. In this way, we hope that we make wearing masks a little bit more fun!”

The design is so realistic that even cats are fooled.

【#おうち時間に朗報】
マスクをマグロにデコる、マスクカバー作りました✨

A3プリントしたら、楽しい工作であなたもマグロに。
ちょっと難易度高めですが、GWにレッツチャレンジ🐟#近大マスク #マスクカバー #手作りマスク

▼ペーパークラフトのPDFはこちらhttps://t.co/aNAXvDbdEr pic.twitter.com/LkfOxQqnOW

— 近畿大学🐟 (@kinkidaigakuPR) May 1, 2020

The design looks incredibly lifelike; the fish head is attached to the mask and the fin is pinned to the back of your head using hair pins. And the best part about this mask; you can make it yourself, entirely for free. Kindai University have posted a PDF file of the mask with instructions showing how to make the mask cover by yourself. Just print out the template onto A3 paper, follow the instructions below and join in the craze that has both kids and adults in Japan making their own fishy face accessory!

Before you start, you will need:

A face mask
Scissors
Glue
Sellotape
Hairpins (or something similar to attach the back of the fish to your head)

First of all, cut out all the pieces. Make sure you cut around the blue lined tabs too, as they will be used to glue the pieces together. Once all the pieces are cut out you should have one head piece, two body pieces (marked 左側 and 右側) and two tail pieces (marked A and B).

Match the body marked 左側 (left) and the fin part labeled A. Glue the grey tabs on fin A and attach it to the back of the left-side body.

Do the same with the right-side body part (右側) and fin B. Be careful to align the parts up carefully to get that real fishy feel.

See the small dotted rectangle on the tabs of the fish body? Cut them out. You’ll be putting your hairpins in here to attach the body to your head.

When you’re done, glue along the outside of the fish body and the tail and stick them together, also folding and gluing the grey tabs of the left side of the fish to the right side. Don’t glue the top white tabs though, as these will be used to attach the fish body to the back of your head. Also, don’t glue the middle of the body, or you will have a very flat fish.

To make the fish tail look more realistic, put some tissue paper inside the glued body. To make it smell more realistic, add some actual tuna. (we can’t guarantee people will still be smiling for long with that method though.)

Once your fish body is done, all that is left is the head. Curve the fish head and glue the tabs on the inside.

Using the sellotape, stick the fish face to your mask.

And you’re done! Use your hair clips to attach the body to the back of your head and pop on the mask to complete the look. We weren’t content with wearing our tuna mask around the house though; we needed to show it to others to really make good use of it. After all, Kindai University made it so that other people could get a laugh. So we went and got some sushi.

It certainly got people’s attention here. Maybe they were secretly jealous of how good we looked, but people were definitely smiling. Mission accomplished.

We also decided to pop to the supermarket to pick up some real fish. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any tuna, but we did manage to find some sekisaba (chub mackrel), a specialty of Oita prefecture.

If you’ve got some time to spare and want to make your own fishy yet fashionable face accessory to cheer up your friends and family, download the PDF and give it a go! You’ll be sure to make those around you a little bit happier! Just don’t forget to post a picture in the comments to make us smile as well!

Related: Tuna Mask PDF
Source: Twitter/@kinkidaigaku
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[ Read in Japanese ]