I remember them first becoming really popularized on the TV show Dark Angel when Jessica Alba and all her fellow mutants had bar codes tattooed on the back of their necks.
Probably a reference to the hero … well, the protagonist, of the Hitman games.
Possibly, but that tattoo idea has been around for a long time. I remember coming up with it with some friends in junior high, when we were convinced it was the Coolest. Tattoo idea. Ever.
See if it was on his middle leg, it would make more sense:
“The next time my wife wants to blow a $100”
“I like to watch my money grow.”
“I like to play with my money.”
But on an arm it isn’t nearly as witty.
Didn’t Henry Rollins have a bar code tattoo on the back of his neck?
The only reference I can find of it is here. Anyone got a photo? I swear I remember this.
Were I an employee there and equipped with a scanner-gun, I’d be sorely tempted to try to ring him up.
This is the tattoo on his neck. Image search “Henry Rollins tattoo” for various other views.
I had a friend who had a barcode tattooed on the side of his head back in 1992 or '93, so the idea has been around for awhile, especially among punks. Sort of a protest against being treated as a number and not a free individual.
Speaking of which…
That’s not a barcode, that’s the logo for the hardcore band “Black Flag”. (The logo is a stylized flag.) Rollins used to sing for them.
I am constantly making the exact same mistake!
If you have an Android smartphone, QR code readers are available. If you can manage to meet the person with the tattoo and have such an app, it’s easy enough to verify if it’s readable. 
I remember one I saw on “World’s Dumbest Criminals”. Car burglar who had his last name and date of birth tattooed on his neck. IIRC, he’d picked a car to burgle that had some sort of surveillance camera in it that got a lovely view of the tattoo, his face, his thieving, etc. 
I am so equipped. Bought a new TV the other day and the manual had QR codes that took me to videos showing set-up. Whatacountry!
Stupid as it is, it still doesn’t take the prize. Meet the guy who had the scene of the murder he committed inked in great detail on his torso. You can’t make that shit up.
If you’d palpated the right spot, money would have come rolling out of the appropriate orifice to pay your fee.
Obviously you don’t collect fees from your patients, but still…
The Clybourn Conspiracy.
The barcode thing was supposedly pretty ‘hip’, not too long ago. Though the fun is sort of out of it given how some (very stupid and disgusting) people use it:(.
Next time you see him, see if it’s in working condition. Be careful he doesn’t eat your card, tho.
What gets me- did the guy walk into a tattoo parlour and ask for a tattoo of an ATM?
If not, are there sort of scrap books you can pick something from and he chose an ATM? (Anyone with the imagination of a stale turd could have come up with something better I would have thought).
A tattoo of a stale turd itself would even be better.
Like with my full back tattoo…
Tattoo Artist: "Eagle? I thought you said ‘beagle’ "
Me: :smack:
I don’t think I have adequate vocabulary to comment on this level of stupid arrogance. Did this sorry excuse for a man really not think someone would figure out that tattoo, or that it would wind up with him getting busted?
Yeah, I didn’t think it was a barcode, either, but didn’t know what it was exactly. I know Black Flag, but apparently have never actually seen their album covers.