There is a growing trend of having tattoos and tattoo art featured in advertising media from around the world. Here are links to articles and websites that deal with this subject.

TATTOO ART FLOWS INTO MAINSTREAM ADS
Corporations tap into pop culture, call on tattoo artists to help their brands gain an edge with younger consumers and convey a sense of originality

Tattoos--once considered outlaw art--have seeped from the skin of consumers into the fabric of advertising and marketing.

First trendy and now common as a form of personal expression, tattoos are popping up in magazine and online ads to sell a range of mass-appeal products looking to communicate an image of hipness or edginess, or just to stand out.

Converse has tattooed versions of its Chuck Taylor sneaker, and it has created an ad in which a man with facial tattoos is photographed with a pair of shoes adorning his neck. Read the whole Chicago Tribune article here

TATTOOS AS TRENDY AD GIMMICK
I normally don't pay attention to animated banner ads on the internet sites I visit but this one caught my eye. It showed a flexed arm, with a tattoo machine moving in space without anyone holding it, tattooing the bicep. The message it was tattooing was about housing mortgage rates.

If you ever wondered if there was a clear sign that tattooing was firmly established as part of the mainstream, there you go, that's it! Tattooing is so well-known and so popular to the main demographic that mortgage companies are courting to get as customers, they are using tattoos to sell house loans, two things that would otherwise be utterly unconnected. Since owning a house has always been considered pretty cool, you can now presume that they aren't the offensive sign of the criminal element that they once were.
Read the whole BellaOnline article here

Here are a few examples of tattoos being used for advertising.

Free Lunch for Life, as seen on CNN Television Network

Athletes Sell Skin Space to Advertisers -- Fox News

NBA Discusses the Possibility of Advertising on Players, Sports Law

Needled News by Marisa DiMattia  
...It’s bizarre, really. Remember when tattooed folk were used in ads to relay the freakish, almost polar opposite of the product’s demographic? They told us, only this smelly punk rock chic would ban our best selling deodorant. They used images of biker babes to tell us how not to be a fashion Don’t. But now that we’re a Do, the message has clearly changed.

With the freak factor largely gone, marketers have sought to put a positive spin on body art in ads, so that you take a closer look at the product, not look away in horror. Some of the ads are effective, while others are ridiculously over-reaching. I have gathered together a few and passed judgement, and so, for today’s column, I’d like to offer the good, the bad, and the ugly of recent ad campaigns using tattoo cool. read the rest of the article