When dad-of-five Billy Gibbs faced being made homeless in 2003, he came up with what could be called an unorthodox solution.
He became a human billboard, selling space on his body for tattoos advertising X-rated websites.
Among the companies which took advantage of his unusual real estate offer was Pornhub. It bought a prime chunk of Mr Gibbs' face - and had their logo inked right there.
In total, the Alaskan raised £17,000 ($23,676) and his kids kept a roof over their head. So, a happy ending of sorts.
Except now Gibbs - who was also paid to change his name by deed pool to Hostgator Dotcom - has decided, not unreasonably, he'd prefer not to have the world's biggest wank site occupying his boat race. He's started laser removal surgery to get rid.
He made the decision after finding people have treated him differently since he got inked up. Who'd have predicted?
He said: "I now work in behavioural health and want to get rid of these tattoos for my own mental health and for my job. They're affecting how people perceive me as a person when in the first place I was only having these tattoos to benefit others...they're causing me hell."
He's set up a donations page if you'd like to help.
Explaining what was going through his head at the time of selling off his face as advertising space, he said: "My mind raced wondering what I could do to keep my kids with a roof over their head.
"Then I thought, 'maybe companies would pay for my body as advertisement space' so I started emailing companies non-stop.
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"When your kids mean everything to you and you don't want them to be homeless, you'll do anything legally in your power. Each time I got a tattoo on my body I knew that would keep us off of the streets for that month but I'd have to continue getting more.
"I was trying to get jobs at the same time, however understandably people didn't want to hire a man with porn website tattoos on my face."
He says the most he was paid for a single tat was £14,000 ($19,498). However, most were considerably less.
"One day I hit rock bottom, and realised I had to do something to get rid," he said. "I got so depressed that I looked in the mirror and cried about what I'd become."
If you want to help Hostgator out, you can donate at www.gofundme.com/GetMyFaceBack
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Words Colin Drury
Topics: Viral, Interesting, Weird, Tattoo