Barcode Tattoos & Barcode Street Art

I doubt if you love barcodes like I do. I own Azalea Software, a barcode software company, and boast of being a self-avowed barcode nerd for the last 20+ years. Needless to say, I love bar codes. I see them everywhere I go.

Barcode tattoos are becoming more and more popular. That's what inspired me to collect photos of bar code tattoos. Bar code tats are everywhere. The back of the neck seems to be the most popular spot. For some reason as much as I love barcodes, I've never seriously considered getting one myself. I love barcodes and respect those that are inked.

Thanks to the dozens of people who've shared their photos with me, allowing me to post them here. The response has been truly overwhelming. Big shout out.

If you have a picture of artwork that incorporates bar codes or a bar code tattoo, please send it to me: jetcityorange at gmail dotCom. Credit and/or links back to you.

People also use barcodes as a part of street art, especially graffiti. Barcode t-shirts are a given. Why barcodes? Because they're now part of our collective visual vocabulary. Granted most of us look at a barcode without really seeing it. No one pays attention to them.

I wrote a white paper, "Barcodes: From Jargon, To Slang" (PDF) that examines barcodes as design pieces. In it I talk about barcodes as visual vocabulary. Check it out.

Read about UPC barcodes including the UPC check digit calculation, Code 128 barcodes, Code 39 barcodes, and Interleaved 2 of 5 barcodes.