Woman auctions forehead for tattoo for $10,000

Friday, July 1, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- For $10,000, Kari Smith's forehead was tattooed with "GoldenPalace.com," the Web address of a gambling site.

The 30-year-old Bountiful woman, who auctioned the forehead advertising space on eBay, said the money will give her 11-year-old son, Brady, a private education, which she believes he needs after falling behind in school.

"For the all the sacrifices everyone makes, this is a very small one," she said. "It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son," she told the Deseret Morning News at the tattooing Wednesday.

"To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son," she said.

Tattoo artist Don Brouse said he has turned away a lot of customers who want to get tattoos that can't be covered up with clothing, and he and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of it.

The one thing Brouse could do with inch-tall letters was to keep them close to her hairline, where bangs or a hat could provide some cover.

Smith's boyfriend, Jeremy Williams, said the couple discussed the idea for more than three weeks before deciding to go through with it.

When they did, Smith's eBay auction attracted more than 27,000 hits and 1,000 watchers.

Bidding reached $999.99 before Goldenpalace.com, an Internet gambling company in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada, clicked "buy now," meeting Smith's $10,000 asking price and ending the auction two days early.

Jon Wolf of the company's marketing department said skin is not an uncommon spot for the casino to advertise. It already has another forehead, more than 100 arms, legs, chests and backs.