Human Billboards (Tattoo Advertising)
Good way to make money or foolish way to use one’s body? Thousands of people are willing to put their bodies up for sale and hundreds of businesses are utilizing them to promote their companies in the latest fusion of body art and business - Tattoo Advertising! Basically what it entails is businesses and marketing firms paying willing participants to get a company’s logo and contact information branded on their bodies…permanently.
The practice has been around for a few years but is starting to pick up momentum. References to it have even been made in the past on TV shows, such as the Simpsons, and articles on it have been featured in magazines, such as Stuff.
There are Web sites - like www.tatad.com - that are dedicated to creating a forum where interested participants and businesses can connect. However, with this particular Web site, the interested participant must first submit a photo to become eligible for consideration. (Apparently you have to be considered one of the “beautiful people” to qualify.) However, there are other ways to engage in tattoo advertising. For instance, there are some people on E-bay who actually auction a specific area of their body (in preset size/shape dimensions) to the highest-bidding company who would like to slap their logo on someone. For instance, this man is auctioning off his shaved head for $5,000 (plus $200 shipping…what’s that about?) to any company that would like to puts it logo there. This Kansas man is auctioning off his left or right arm at a starting bid of $300 for a company interested in branding him.
Sounds like a heck of a fun and unique job, as long as one doesn’t have a problem with possibly being branded with “Enzyte” or “Rock the Vote” for the rest of his or her life. But hey, if you’re a tattoo fanatic, what could be better than not only getting a free tattoo, but getting paid to have one?