Originally published at: Man gets barcode tattoo for contactless payment at check-outs | Boing Boing
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Um… does he still need actual money in his account for that to work?
Asking for a friend.
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Tell your friend yes.
If they have no money, they still give a fixed percentage of their soul at each transaction (see The Revelation of St. John the Divine), and their creditors have the right to take a pound of their flesh, that pound to include the tattoo.
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Scans arm
[ping]
“Product Recall”
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Jack Chick, famous paranoid evangelical religious tract artist once drew this:
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“Insufficient Soul”
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So… by showing everyone the barcode tattoo, did this person just allow everyone to copy the barcode and then be able to use the funds in his account?
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After publishing his own barcode on the internet…time to revoke your arm and get a new one?
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This causes me a lot of pain, but I’m with Chick on this one.
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Where have I seen this before?
Neal Stephenson must be so proud
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Before anyone rushes out to get one of these, take some advice from a guy who completed his full tattoo suit in the late 90s. Thin line tattoos blur. They look great for the first year, but after 5 they are blurry and after 10, those lines will become wider. Before too long, it will just be a gray box.
I have the alphabet as a bracelet. I got it 30 years ago. I can tell that it is still the alphabet, but for everyone else, it looks like a black band on my wrist.
Oh, and my tattoos were done by very famous (still famous) tattoo artists. It isn’t about artist quality, it is about what ink does in your skin over time.
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I’d say the money is (at least slightly) in favor of the cash app that it’s linked to ceasing to function (or changing its account ID schema, etc.) first.
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With this kind of decision-making process, he might as well also go for a full face tattoo.
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The last time I tried to use a barcode in a store, the cash register flagged it as a static image, rather than one generated by the associated whole foods app. So unless his barcode tattoo can respond to a challenge, it’s not going to be useful for very long.
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Vendors should be wary if someone else in the neighborhood suddenly shows up trying to pay with the barcode on a leather bracelet of unknown provenance.
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Your barcode tattoo was probably overdrawn.
(I’ll get my coat.)
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Only if he is in the vicinity and his app is open.
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“Er, dude, your, er; your apps open.”
"Oops, sorry! [ziiiiip]
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