Skip to main content

Facebook tattoo video revealed as hoax

tattoosJust as we were beginning to think Facebook was starting to have an unreasonable effect on some of the world’s citizens, it appears that there is reason for hope. Humanity has not entirely lost its marbles. You see, the story of the woman having all 152 of her friends tattooed onto her arm appears to have been an elaborate hoax. Thank goodness for that.

News outlets around the world reported yesterday that a woman in the Netherlands had taken the seemingly extraordinary step of tattooing pictures of all of her Facebook friends onto her right arm. There was even a video showing the tattoos being put on. Coming in the wake of stories about people naming their babies Facebook and Like, this particular report didn’t seem that hard to believe.

However, Dutch News said on Wednesday that the tattoo artist who appeared in the video, Dex Moelker, has admitted to Dutch newspaper the Telegraaf that it was merely an advertising stunt for a company in the Netherlands that makes gifts out of Facebook profile pictures. The stunt has certainly given the company some publicity – as of late Wednesday, the YouTube video had been viewed more than a million times since being uploaded at the end of last month.

“It is a try-out tattoo, a transfer, that washes off in a couple of days,” she told the Telegraaf. According to Moelker, it took just a couple of hours to apply the transfer.

So while many readers of the report were imagining the complications that might ensue should the tattooed woman fall out with any of her friends, she was more than likely in her bathroom washing all the ink off with warm soapy water.

The only worrying thought is that the stunt may have inspired someone out there to get all 500 of their Facebook friends tattooed onto their face. For real.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
YouTube brings pinch to zoom and video navigation changes to everyone
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube is updating its user interface with a slew of changes, and chief among them are the pinch-to-zoom feature and "precise" video navigation.

On Monday, YouTube announced quite a few updates to its viewing experience on mobile and web. Notably, the video-sharing platform said that it was finally "launching pinch to zoom and precise seeking to all users starting today."

Read more
10 longest videos on YouTube
YouTube logo on top-left corner of home screen

YouTube is a platform where you can watch millions of videos from around the world. Whether these videos are podcasts, reviews, or even reactions, YouTube has something for everyone. However, some content creators take it a step further and make their videos extra long. If you're looking for videos that last for over several hours, then you're in luck, because we've assembled ten of the longest videos currently on YouTube. Note that these may not be the absolute longest videos on YouTube, but we tried to limit the scope to entrees that have entertainment value. Somehow we suspect a clock countdown for 70 hours one second at a time wouldn't be very enjoyable.
10. The longest 5 seconds on YouTube.

If you ever wanted to see a five-second-long excerpt stretched out into a 19-hour thrill ride, check out this video from The Slow Mo Guys. As their chosen name suggests, these two men like to film in slow motion some crazy activities such as jumping on a water balloon, getting hit in the face with a soccer ball, and shooting a newton's cradle. "The longest 5 seconds on YouTube," which was released in 2016, stretches out a clip from their "Glass Explosion at 343,000 fps!" where they heat up a glass measuring cup and make its handle explode with only a squirt of water. Even though the build-up to this explosion is quite long, it's worth watching for the shattering effect alone.
9. I Counted To 100,000!

Read more
YouTube to overhaul channel names with @ handles for all
Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube is launching “handles” to make it easier for viewers to find and engage with creators on the video-sharing platform.

The change means that soon, every channel will have a unique handle denoted by an "@" mark, "making it easier for fans to discover content and interact with creators they love," the Google-owned company said in a post announcing the change.

Read more