“I scan myself at the supermarket”, the crazy story of the Red Bull fan who tattooed a functional barcode on herself

Are there any products that you love enough to have tattooed on your body? Dew, a 22-year-old content creator from Switzerland, has gone viral after posting about their scannable Red Bull barcode tattoo. They didn’t go with a can of the caffeinated drink. No. Dew got the barcode tattooed on their forearm.

Now, instead of scanning the can at self-checkout, Dew can scan her arm. They showed off her new ink on TikTok on May 18, showing them in action using the barcode tattoo at self-checkout. On Instagram, the video has been viewed over 20 million times.

Where can Dew use their barcode tattoo?

In a follow-up, Q&A-style video, they said that it would work at any store in Switzerland, but that outside of the country, the barcode is different. Price changes do not affect the validity of the barcode, as the data retrieved by the barcode can be updated without altering the product. “It would be a fucking pain in the ass for Red Bull to have to make a new bar code for every single store that has a sale,” explained Dew.

However, if Red Bull alters the barcode, Dew could run into some problems. In most cases, companies don’t need to change the barcode, unless there is a change to the design of the product, like a change of size or shape. So long as Red Bull keeps the iconic slim can, Dew isn’t likely to face many issues.

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