Presently a growing number of companies are using the human body as a canvas for walking, talking advertisements.

This can work for lesser-known companies with fewer marketing dollars, but "if you pick a concept that's different from your brand, you can run into problems," says Clayton Tolley, of identity consultancy Addison Whitney in Charlotte, N.C. In other words, an edgy tattoo campaign might be more apropos for a microbrewery or a snowboard maker