Marketers just want to tattoo their logos on your body — better yet, their websites.

During the dot-com boom of the late ’90s and early 2000s, few knew how the Internet would evolve or whether it would last, but that didn’t stop people from making money off of it. In fact, the web helped pioneer an entirely new brand of guerrilla marketing. And nothing was off limits.

In 2001 a web user complained in a forum: “Last year, the Net was inundated with publicity stunts and name games aimed at driving Net-weary consumers online. It seemed as if there would be no end to the creativity and scope of the e-commerce publicity stunts.”

Alas, that was only the beginning.

URL tattoos

A sensation in the mid 2000s, “skinvertising” paid consumers to tattoo startups’ URLs on their body.

Jim Nelson was reportedly the first person to sell his skin as ad space in 2003, earning $7,000 to tattoo CI Host’s logo and site on the back of his head. He signed a contract promising to keep the ink for five years.

However, many criticized the stunts, claiming they preyed on people of lower income. Notorious for its brazen marketing schemes, Golden Palace casino paid one Utah woman $15,000 to tattoo its website on her forehead. “I only live once, and I’m doing it for my son,” she said. Another man with bipolar disorder branded his face with the names of porn sites, at about $4,000 per tattoo, and changed his name to Hostgator for $15,000. He said to Vice in 2013, “Each one of the tattoos I have is another day that I can keep my kids off the street, so for me the tattoos mean a lot.” But he regrets the porn sites.

DotComGuy

In 2000, computing systems manager Mitch Maddox legally changed his name to DotComGuy and announced his goal to live one year without leaving his house. He ordered food and swag online from the experiment’s sponsors, such as Travelocity and GroceryWorks.com.

Half.com, USA

When Topeka, Kansas, temporarily changed its name to ToPikachu in 1998, a part of the earth died.

Other towns had more charitable goals. Halfway, Oregon, voted to change its name to Half.com for a year in exchange for 20 new computers for the town’s school. For $20,000, Santa, Idaho, agreed to switch to SecretSanta.com. The town collects and responds to letters from children who write to Santa.

As recently as 2013, matchmaking site SugarDaddie.com was still trying to convince the town of Sugar Hill, Georgia, to change its name to the tune of $3.75 million for 10 years. Still no, SugarDaddie.

AOL’s endless disks

In the 1990s, “you couldn’t open a magazine…or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of it,” claimed PC World. AOL essentially spammed American households with floppies and later CD disks offering free hours of AOL. However, once users got wise to the wider (and free) Internet services, they bailed and AOL was out a huge investment. In 2010 former AOL CEO Steve Case estimated the company had spent about $35 per user to market those pesky disks. Now they’re collector’s items, go figure.

GoDaddy’s lack of taste

Web hosting site GoDaddy.com turned heads for years with its provocative Super Bowl ads. Its 2005 spot featured a busty wardrobe malfunction, a reference to the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake “accident” the year prior. Two years later FOX deemed GoDaddy’s “beaver” commercial too risqué for Super Bowl primetime. So GoDaddy simply ran an “ad for an ad”; its TV spot asked people to go to GoDaddy.com to watch the real thing. Before the game ended the ad logged one million views.

Streakers

In 2002, mobile phone company Vodafone paid streakers to run across a rugby field wearing nothing but their logo. The widely televised Bledisloe Cup in Sydney caused outrage. Vodafone’s CEO was forced to issue an apology, and subsequently donated £30,000 to a sports charity.

Balls to the walls

Most any company is willing to inconvenience your commute if they get permission. In 2005, Sony Bravia released thousands of colorful bouncy balls down the hills of San Francisco — and filmed it — in order to sell its new TVs. The video is admittedly mesmerizing albeit anxiety-producing for litter-phobes.

Sponsor my birth

In 2006 a pregnant woman sold her live birth to the highest bidder. Asia Francis, from St. Louis, put sponsorship rights on eBay. In exchange for $1,000 from web hosting company Globat, Francis wore branded t-shirts, temporary-tattooed the logo on her belly, and released select video from the birth which Globat could host on its site.

“Nine months is a long time to sit around and not do anything,” Francis told Women’s eNews. “This gave me something to do.”

That’s more than dot-com failures can say today.