BuzzFeed's article about human billboards—defined here as people who tattoo advertisements or brand logos on themselves—is quite illuminating, if a little tragic. After all, a lot of the startup companies and websites that actually paid people to do this don't even exist anymore, rendering the marks (and their wearers, in a way) sadly obsolete. Joe Tamargo, who has tattoos of 15 different defunct website logos, is basically archive.org made flesh, and that's true of a lot of these "skinvertisers" today. The lady who tattooed GoldenPalace.com on her forehead is inevitably mentioned (she lives in her dad's basement now, apparently), and even she was outdone by some Alaskan guy who not only got a Golden Palace tattoo, but changed his name to Hostgator Dotcom as well. (Golden Palace still exists, but isn't accessible in all U.S. states.) At the risk of sounding judgmental, holy hell are these people stupid for essentially selling bits of their humanity piecemeal like this. Bad tattoos usually have a good story attached to them, and even those of an ex-girl- or boyfriend's name come with real memories. You can't say that about the PillDaddy.com logo that'll be on your arm forever. Photo by Stephen Nigl.
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