How far would you go for a raise?

Inking a deal with Rapid Realty has a more permanent feel now that the New York City-based brokerage is giving a 15 percent raise to its workers who get a tattoo of the company’s logo.

So far, 40 agents are inked and more are lining up, Anthony Lolli, the CEO of Rapid Realty told NBC News.

One new agent got the tattoo after only a week working for Rapid Realty.

But isn’t that crazy?

“I don’t think so,” Lolli said. “Some people fall in love with the opportunity. They fall in love with the brand.”

It’s actually pretty conservative compared to other people who have tattooed company logos on their person, such as the man who tattooed the web address of a porn site on his face or the woman who auctioned the space on her forehead for $10,000.

Rapid Realty

Agents of Rapid Realty in New York City are eligible for a 15 percent increase in commission if they get a tattoo of the company logo.

But at Rapid Realty, there are no regrets yet and all 40 inked employees are still with the company, Lolli said. Some early adopters are even making plans to touch up their colors. 

The tattoos can be any size anywhere on the agent’s body to qualify for the bonus. They’re getting the tattoos anywhere they like: on their thighs, biceps, ankles, wrist, behind the ear and elsewhere, Lolli said. Some have only the RR logo, while others have also spelled out Rapid Realty. “They’re allowed to customize it,” he said.

Since all of Rapid Realty’s 1,100 agents work on commission, the 15 percent boost kicks in each time they complete a deal. Most agents start at a 25 percent commission so a company tattoo will bump them to the 40 percent bracket. Some agents were already maxed out at the 40 percent rate, but still got tattoos even though there was no extra pay in the deal, Lolli said.

About two years ago, Rapid Realty agent Adam Altman was the first to make the commitment after he closed a deal for a tattoo parlor in Bushwick, Brooklyn. A video on the company website documents the event, as the bespeckled, bearded agent adds the stylized RR logo to his existing tattoo collection. He already had tattoos on his arms, legs, back and mouth.

“The company’s been good to me. I don’t see myself going anywhere. If I have it on, it’s gonna force me to keep going and working harder, cuz you know I have that logo on, you know you’re not going to give up. It’s there for life,” Altman says in the video .“Rapid for life.Yo.”

So far, Lolli himself isn’t inked, but is grateful for his agents’ devotion. “It’s very humbling. I have an attitude of gratitude,” he said.

He’s considering getting a tattoo when his company hits a big benchmark of 100 offices. Currently Rapid Realty has franchises in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Long Island and New Jersey. But with 62 locations, he has some time to consider where he wants his tattoo for the 100th.

Ed Betz / AP file

Joe Tamargo sold ads on his body to various sites, like SaveMartha.com, which was set up to keep Martha Stewart from jail following her incitement for securities fraud.

The dotcom bubble may have burst long ago, but some of its lingering effects are permanently etched on the backsides, forearms and foreheads of a few human billboards. Buzzfeed profiled some people who still carry the “skinvertising” tattoos. They got cash from websites to ink ads directly onto their flesh back in the 2000s, when the trend was all the rage. The cash is gone. So too are many of the websites. But the ink remains. 

Karolyne Smith sold her forehead space to online gambling site GoldenPalace for $10,000 and hit the talk show circuit. Her current Facebook picture shows her sporting blonde bangs down to her eyebrows. It's against the law to use the site from within the U.S. and several states are blocked from accessing the site at all. 

Ed Betz / AP file

Joe Tamargo shows off a tattoo.

Joe Tamargo sold ads on his body to various sites, like SaveMartha.com, which was set up to keep Martha Stewart from jail following her incitement for securities fraud. The tattoo apparently didn't work, because the hostess with the mostess still went to prison (though, after serving her sentence, now free). Tamargo told Buzzfeed that when people ask about the tattoos ,“they're like, 'Yo, that's pretty cool. I'm going to check out those websites... And then they get there and there's nothing on the website.” 

He's trying to buy himself some of the URLs on his body which lead to now defunct sites, like the former Viagra pill purveyor pilldaddy.com. 

Other depressing vestiges of the trend include: 

• Mark Greenlaw: Auctioned the back of his neck on eBay as advertising space in 2006 to a web hosting company called Glob@t to provide for his family while he was in Army basic training. 
• Jim Nelson: Sold a very large chunk on the back of his head to CI Host for $7,000. He signed a contract agreeing he would travel to at least eight states and two countries a year or pay a $25,000 fine. 
• Skinvertise.com: Billed itself as the first and original skin advertising agency, bringing together “skinvertisers” and advertising clients. The website now leads to a page that says the site is suspended. 

Then there's the poster child for the skinvertising trend, Billy Gibby, who legally changed his name to Hostgator Dotcom after a website hosting company paid him for the “naming rights.” Tattoos for websites cover his face. He too has a giant ad for GoldenPalace filling his backside. In all, he says he has 37 tattoos. So how much does his flesh go for? 

In a 2009 post on his blog Gibby announced he was selling 6”x1” forehead tattoos for $20,000 and 6”x1” and 4”x1” chest tattoos for $3,000 and $2,200, respectively. 

“Let me be your company or website's billboard,” read the post. 

Reached by email, Gibby said he's currently charging $1,500 for a tattoo on his body. Traditional economic theory would suggest that as demand has dropped, so have Gibby's prices. 

Besides changing his prices, Gibby too has had a change of heart about being the walking, talking, literal “face” of so many websites. 

“I no longer do tattoo ads on my head or face and plan to get those ones taken off one day with lasers,” he told NBC News in an email.

My kids don't really talk about my tattoos much but when they get older I'll let them know the reason I did it,” he wrote. “It does make me sad sometimes that I have them on my face but I know the reason I did it was to keep my kids from being homeless.”

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