By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
At their best, tattoos are a form of artistic expression, not a ploy to seek some sort of reward.
Usually, people choose to get a tattoo of something meaningful. Whether it honors family, friends or a song lyric, the artwork possesses some kind of symbolic importance.
Lately, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to get ridiculous tattoos with a “tit for tat” mind set. If they get a certain tattoo, maybe they’ll be compensated for the permanent decision.
Myron Robinson, a college student, recently got a tattoo on his stomach bearing the name of movie streaming website Netflix, according to a March 8 Huffington Post article. Robinson proceeded to broadcast his deed on social media, tweeting a picture of his newest ink directly to the company’s Twitter account.
In his tweet, he told the company it should put him on a commercial for his loyalty and expressed his love of its services. Much to Robinson’s delight, the company was elated with the tribute and awarded him a year of free subscription.
I don’t know what’s more disturbing: the thought of someone permanently inking their body for 15 minutes of fame or Netflix encouraging this kind of behavior.
Will it give free subscriptions to anyone who brands him or herself with its namesake, or is this just a one-time deal? I’m pretty sure Robinson would have purchased another year of service anyway at a rate of $7.99 a month.
At first, Robinson claimed the idea was a joke between him and his friends, but after a full week of thinking it over, he decided to get the tattoo. During an interview with HuffPost Live, Robinson praised the company for its great customer service and named its CEO, Reed Hastings, his entrepreneurial inspiration.
When the interviewer jokingly asked Robinson if he would get a HuffPost Live tattoo on his body, Robinson said he would for a check.
How lovely.
But he’s not the first to tat his body for a price. In August 2o12, Eric Hartsburg auctioned off a 5-by-2-inch space on the side of his head on eBay, claiming he would get a tattoo of whatever the highest bidder deemed fit, according to an Oct. 26 ABC News article.
An anonymous Republican user of the site paid Hartsburg $15,000 to get Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign “R” logo on his face. He agreed to it because the tattoo was something he could live with and believed it would help to educate people on his beliefs.
After Romney lost last year’s election to Barack Obama, Hartsburg had a change of heart, labeling the Republican candidate a “sore loser.” A Nov. 29 ABC News article reported the removal process could take up to 15 sessions over a period of six months to a year, longer than usual because of the blue ink in the logo.
Guess that eBay user will want his money back.
The human body should not be treated as an ad space, ready to be painted for a price. Let’s hope this madness of getting inked for compensation ends here.
