16 & Pregnant alum Nikkole Paulun is no stranger to stirring up controversy, and the now-20-year-old mom has the Twitterverse choosing sides in a heated debate after she revealed that she recently got a tattoo of a tanning salon on her thigh in exchange for free tanning for life.
Here’s the tweet that started the whole thing:
Free tattoo got me free tanning for life. No shame pic.twitter.com/9H29iHVhGW
— Nikkole Paulun (@nikkoleMTV) May 5, 2014
We spoke with Nikkole about her decision to offer up her body for advertising and she says, “Well it’s the tanning salon that I’ve always gone to.” She reveals that the tanning salon, Electrik Beach, posted the “Tatts & Tans 4Ever” offer on Facebook last month:
Nikkole says she was one of ten chosen to get the tatvertising, which was done by Kings & Queens Tattoo Studio in Monroe, Michigan.
As you can tell in the photo at the top of this post, Nikkole get her tattoo on her upper right thigh. “You can’t see it unless I’m in undies,” the now-20-year-old mother of one says, adding, “It’s only 2 x 2 inches.” Here’s another photo of Nikkole actually getting the tattoo:
Nikkole also tells us that free tanning for a lifetime wasn’t the only thing the Electrik Studios “lifers” got in exchange for the tattoos. “We got free tshirts and lotion and stuff too,” she says.
Some commenters on Twitter pointed out that the tanning studio may only have been offering the promotion because it was soon going out of business, but Nikkole isn’t worried. “It’s actually a big chain around here and has a lot of locations all over so I don’t think it will close anytime soon,” Nikkole says confidently. “It was actually done on the opening day of their new location,” she adds.
Electrik Beach got a lot of positive feedback on and questions about the promotion, and they responded on Facebook with the specifics of the offer and dropped the hint that they may be doing it again soon:
It was a super fun event. It was one day, we scheduled in advance, the #lifers got Real, EB logo tattoos and got free tanning in our system 5000 for life! 🙂 we have been open 23 years and have opened 6 locations this far and will continue to grow! We are also the only tanning studio in south eastern michigan to have a wide area network. Which means no matter which location you go to for your purchase, you can still go to any location to use it! Thank you again #lifers for participating.
Everyone who has been asking if we will do the tattoos again… Just keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook, twitter, and Instagram for new specials, upcoming events, freebies, sales, and giveaways!! We will always have new and exciting things going on!!
So would you have gotten a tattoo of a tanning studio logo in exchange for free tanning for life? How about the logo of a different company? I’m not much for tanning, but I’d have to seriously think about getting a “DD” tat if it meant getting free Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for life!
