How to get ahead in advertising.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

For $10,000 and a brighter future for her son, Kari Smith on Wednesday became a real life pop-up ad for a virtual casino.

"It feels like someone is taking a pin and just stabbing you with it," Smith told her son, Brady, seated nearby on the floor as tattoo artist Don Brouse — in permanent black block letters — branded her forehead with the Web site domain GoldenPalace.com.

The 30-year-old Bountiful mother, who put the space up for auction on the Web, will be promoting the multinational gambling site, which makes the claim — using a little more color and a lot more flash — to be the No. 1 online casino. [...]

Smith said she talked to several companies and received multiple offers, but she decided Goldenpalace.com would be the best choice.

"We decided to go with these guys because they work with a lot of charities," she said. "I want this to mean something." [oh, it means something alright, just not what you think -'r]

Jon Wolf of the company's marketing department said skin is not an uncommon spot for the casino to advertise: It already has another forehead, more than 100 arms, legs, chests and backs.

Mm-hmm. In case you don't remember, Golden Palace is the same outfit that ponied up to name the titi monkey. Of course, it's her body and she can do with it whatever she likes, but something tells me the closing sentence of the article will prove to contain two very poor predictions.

Smith said she doesn't think she'll ever regret having the permanent logo on her forehead, and her son promised to get good grades.

No, you probably won't regret it any one of the next 500 unsuccessful job interviews. Also, promises from 11-year-olds have a great track record. I don't have 10 grand, but I'll pay for the tattoo if anybody wants to get "APOSTROPHER.COM" on your forehead. First come, first serve.