I got a very strange email yesterday from a guy called Jarret Sexton, it took me a while to soak in what he was actually offering, and to be honest I still haven’t quite got over the shock, but essentially he’s offering advertising on his body, permanent advertising, advertising tattoos.

The fact is even if this guy doesn’t realise it he’s about to embark on a ground breaking arts project, in the tradition of many others, especially in the Pop Art scene he’s about to creatively subvert the way the world views the world of business and it’s unruly companion advertising.

In principle I’ve agreed to be his first paying customer, I personally don’t have a single tattoo on my body, and so I must admit I feel somewhat guilty for enforcing my will on another’s skin, but if he is prepared to do it I can’t stand in his way. I want to keep my ‘advert’ simple and have asked for a plain old url – "www.PaulBaines.co.uk", I’d rather it was in a prominent area, somewhere on the neck or upper chest so it will be easily viewed, but I don’t want the tattoo to cover more than a centimetre or so in height, and four or five in length.

He hasn’t worked out the price structure as yet, he says he’d charge for the cost of the tattoo and a small monthly fee or lump sum, something he will seriously have to consider. I suggested he works upon the idea of standard advertising layout, i.e per square cm or inch, we will see what he comes up with.

I asked Jarrett why he was considering this rather drastic move, he quoted me the following:-

"I began the project because, one the economy is not that great and I’m struggling myself, but mainly I want to do something no else has done, and a new sort of advertisement. Now several people have had companies names and logos tattooed on their body but not as advertising and not the way I am doing it. I got the idea just trying to think of businesses to start, what could be my “catch” that no one else has, and something new. "

There are many people out there who indeed to have the occassional piece of corporate branding tattooed on their body, but this is certainly a step beyond the norm. It should bring him a massive amount of press attention. Still he has certain prerequisites, i.e no tattoos on his face or lower arms which to be honest comes as something of a relief to me. I’d hate to think the guy was ruining his life doing this, then again, even if it is merely for the purpose of commerce, Jarrett is venturing into an area where very few artists dare to tred. He is not merely creating art, he will be art, corporate and commercial art that is.

He will be creating a Facebook page and website in the near future, but if you would like to book yourself some human advertising space then contact Jarrett at sexton.jarrett@gmail.com or walking.billboard.advertising@gmail.com

This post is tagged advertising and art, art advertising, human billboard, tattoo art, tattooed man, walking billboard