Facebook Tattoo Hoax: Video of Woman Having Friends' Pictures Tattooed on Arm Is Ad Gimmick, but Goes Viral
It's apparently an ad gimmick, but goes viral anyhow.
June 9, 2011 — -- Getting added on Facebook is one thing. But 152 lucky friends have now been added in ink to a Dutch woman's arm.
Or so it seems. A YouTube user who called herself "susyj87" posted a video of herself getting a tattoo montage of her Facebook friends' profile pictures.
It was unmasked as a hoax -- just an advertising gimmick -- but a very successful one. A Rotterdam tattoo artist named Dex Moelker confessed to the Dutch Telegraaf newspaper that the tattoo was actually temporary, not permanent. No matter. By this morning it had been viewed more than 1,500,000 times.
"My tattoo is not about up-to-date profile pics or fame (as you can see I want to stay anonymous)," "Susy" wrote in a post to go with her video. "These are the people closest to me (not all my Facebook friends). It's a personal expression of who I am right now in this part of my life and the media world we live in. And of course I love the way it looks."
People took her seriously, and ridiculed her on the Internet for making a senseless, nearly irreversible choice.
"What an idiot," wrote one user, "Mitchk17."
One blogger wrote that social media circles might feel it's "the most ridiculous thing on the planet."
Others wondered if the video made a statement about the times in which we live. Are these virtual relationships the new norm? There certainly is an appreciation for them lately.
Take Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York. He lied about virtual relationships online for years, and has now been widely criticized -- as other politicians have been -- for lying about entertaining real affairs. Given our now tech-centered society, maybe virtual relationships are the new real relationships.
ABC News tried to reach "susyj87" to find out if the tattoo was real, and never received a reply. And it did seem a bit promotional for Pretty Social and Tattoo Dex -- who were revealed this morning to be the tatto parlor and artist behind the whole thing. Unless you like tattoos and live in Rotterdam, you may never hear of them again.