Mary Haley has the perfect party trick: a barcode-like tattoo of nearly two dozen fine lines that, when scanned with a Spotify music app, prompts a phone to play “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega.
Haley, who is 33 and runs a marketing agency in Skowhegan, Maine, got the Spotify tattoo in early 2022. When she moonlights as a waitress at a local snowmobiler bar, guests will sometimes ask her what song it plays. She often tells them, ‘You have to scan it.’ If they do, they are rewarded with lyrics that include the line, “A little bit of Mary all night long.”

Just how long the tattoo will perform as advertised is a painful subject. A growing cadre of music fans have joined the Spotify tattoo craze as a conversation starter or a way to commemorate sentimental favorites like wedding first-dance songs. But while many on social media tout the tats and how well they scan, some are starting to discover that nothing in life is permanent, even tattoos. Over time, ink fades. As skin ages it may warp the lines.

Haley said her tattoo artist tried to ward off the ravages of time by making the lines thinner than normal. “Eventually, they will get fuzzy, like regular tattoos,” said Haley, who also has eight other tattoos.
Dex Heine, an auto mechanic from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, got his own Spotify tattoo in 2020 after the pandemic had brought QR codes into fashion. His below-the-knee tattoo played “Pony” by Ginuwine.

“It’s so corny and so cheesy,” 37-year-old Heine said. “It doesn’t matter in the world where you are, if that song starts, everybody immediately lights up and thinks it’s funny.”
But before long, Heine’s bar code stopped working. The tattoo became harder to scan in different light and eventually became too frustrating to attempt in a group setting. The code is now covered with a large dragon, joining other tattoos including a large image of Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” on one thigh and others featuring Mickey Mouse and Lightning McQueen from “Cars.”
A Spotify spokesperson said in an email, “We love seeing listeners wear the audio they love on their sleeves and helping them rep their fandom. Since 2017, we’ve seen Spotify Codes used on everything from bumper stickers to sneakers to, yes, tattoos.”

Veronica Reid, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Omaha, Neb., got one of the tattoos on her right wrist in 2020. She received the code for AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” joining 30-some other tattoos.
“The whole reason I got Thunderstruck was so I always have a drinking game on here,” Reid said, referring to a game that involves alternating chugging a drink whenever the lyrics say “thunder.”

But her tattoo has never scanned—she believes it’s because she doesn’t have the Spotify logo next to it.
For tattoo artists, the Spotify tats are a challenge, because they require so much precision to work.
“They are the most stressful tattoos I have ever done,” said Natalie Wilkinson, a 34-year-old artist who runs the Black Parade tattoo studio in Rotherham, U.K. She advises patrons to find places on the body that are flat, such as the knee area or inner ankle. She avoids hands, since the ink is prone to fade, as well as the ribs and stomach.