The Tattoo That Pays You: GoldenPalace.com

It all started with Forehead Goldie, a Utah woman named Karolyne Smith who agreed to have GoldenPalace.com permanently tattooed on her forehead for $10,000 in order to pay for her child to go to school. Since then, GoldenPalace.com, the online casino and poker room more famous for its publicity stunts than its games, has capitalized on what may possibly be the final frontier in display advertising -- the human body.

In their years-long and still ongoing "Human Billboard" campaign, they have purchased literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of ad space on various peoples’ body parts, most typically through an eBay auction posted by the tattooee. Here are some recent highlights from this new and questionably sane breed of entrepreneur:

A 20-year old from Evansville, IN had the online casino’s logo tattooed on his ankle, the first "below the belt" credit to GoldenPalace’s name. He said he came up with the idea in order to pay off some hefty Bureau of Motor Vehicles fines.

A grandmother and her daughter agreed to have GoldenPalace.com temporarily tattooed on their chests for 3 months. A second daughter has agreed to have the logo tattooed on her pregnant belly, also for 3 months. Their total earnings: $1,000.00.

Speaking of pregnant -- 3 actual sisters from St. Petersburg, FL, all pregnant at the same time, got $5,000.00 for donning the same temporary GoldenPalace.com tattoo for 3 months. They even said, if they had to go out in cold weather, they’d wear a GoldenPalace.com sweatshirt.

GoldenPalace sponsored Professional Arm Wrester Brent Norris with $1,150.00 in exchange for, among other concessions, a temporary tattoo of the GoldenPalace logo on his wrestling arm. This occasion has precedent: the GoldenPalace logo also took up temporary residence on female World Arm Wrestling champion Dawn Higgin’s arm and forehead during a subsequent years’ championship match in Tokyo.

But enough of this temporary nonsense (the ankle is permanent, at least). GoldenPalace paid a woman from Fountain, FL $15,000 for a promised media blitz that included a permanent tattoo of the online casino’s logo on her chest, 3 hours a day for 3 days in a swimsuit in 3 different heavily-trafficked spots, and an aerial advertising banner flown over Florida’s beaches.

Reno resident Molly Demers traded the back of her head for $18,000, consenting to have her head shaved, and the GoldenPalace.com logo permanently tattooed on the bald spot. As a side note, Ms. Demers says she donated the hair she shed to Locks of Love, a charity that gives hairpieces to low-income kids with long-term, medical hair loss.

An Anchorage, Alaska boxer took $4,450 for the right to tattoo GoldenPalace permanently wherever on his body they’d like. That includes multiple tattoos, as many as GoldenPalace decides, located, in the seller’s words, "on most of my body". And on his truck - for life (his or the truck’s?)

Professional stunt men LeatherFace and The Executioner, made famous on MTV’s Viva La Bam are being paid a total of $13,000 to have GoldenPalace.com permanently inked on their arms. Both men are donating 20% of their earnings to The Children’s Miracle Network.

And speaking of children, in a related stunt, GoldenPalace paid $222.50 to 4 year-old David (last name purposely excluded) from Charlotte, NC for the right to select his wardrobe for a full month. Fortunately, GoldenPalace has only one thing in mind, and David’s outfits will probably consists of modest shirts, shorts, and caps with the GoldenPalace logo emblazoned on them. Odd, though -- don’t you think? -- to have a minor advertising a gambling site. Aw, what the heck! It’s cute.

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