Frequent Costco shoppers will tell you that there’s one item from the store they just can’t live without.
Whether it’s a dish from their food court, one of the chain’s cheap rotisserie chickens, or those dark chocolate sea salt caramels, there’s a lot to love from the wholesale chain.
But do you love a Costco item so much that you’d consider getting a tattoo of it? That’s what many shoppers are debating after seeing a video on TikTok from user @righteousfelon with over 1.8 million views.
Did This Woman Really Get A Beef Jerky Barcode Tattoo?
In the video, a woman can be seen at the checkout of a Costco. The video shows her revealing her lower back to an employee, which appears to have a tattoo that contains a barcode. The woman is holding two bags of beef jerky.
“Saw this girl at costco buy beef jerky with a tattoo today,” the text overlaying the video reads.
As the video progresses, it appears that the shopper is actually able to buy jerky using her scanned tattoo. By the end, she has taken her receipt and her items and seems to leave the store.
Is This Real?
Probably not—but that doesn’t mean things like this haven’t happened before.
The video was posted by the account for beef jerky brand Righteous Felon. Their account has several other videos that seem staged, from children setting up playground jerky stores to a dad tying a “snack belt full of jerky” around the waist of his child.
That said, the concept was likely based on another video that went viral last year. The video, posted by TikTok account @oldjewishmen, shows a man purchasing five Costco rotisserie chickens. Saying he doesn’t “want any LED on them,” he instead insists that the Costco worker scan his shirt, which contains the barcode for the chickens. The worker does.
And a woman who loves Red Bull so much that she got a functional barcode tattoo of the product also went viral in 2025. It takes some skill and extreme attention to detail to create a functional barcode tattoo. The woman who got the Red Bull tattoo, Dew, told Jam Press that her artist let her know beforehand that “it possibly couldn’t work.” “My artist was very open about [that],” Dew informed the outlet, per the New York Post. “I tried the next day at work and it did, I was so excited about it.”
It does not appear that Costco has an official policy regarding whether one can bring in their own barcode to be scanned. That said, one should not be worried, as barcode scanners are not dangerous.
Furthermore, if one is truly concerned about barcodes, they can ask the cashier to punch in the numbers manually. They do not need to print a T-shirt, nor get a barcode tattoo.
@righteousfelon She picked her snack for life
Commenters Share Their Thoughts
In the comments section, users pointed out the flaws in the idea of getting a barcode tattooed.
“What if they change the bar code,” questioned a user. “she will have to fix her tattoo.”
“More impressed the employee did it,” offered another.
“They better keep making that product,” stated a further TikToker.
BroBible reached out to Costco via media contact form and Righteous Felon via website contact form.