You may not recognize this man, but to thousands of treasure hunters tired of staring at his semi-naked body, he's standing in the way of $50,000 and a key to a new Volvo.
"Tattoo Man" holds the answer to puzzle number four in Volvo's online treasure hunt at volvocars.us/thehunt, a promotion celebrating Disney's new movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Or rather, the longitude and latitude coordinates to the next destination in The Hunt are right there in front of you, revealed in the tattoos covering his body. Simple, right? Wrong.
While thousands of people have solved the puzzle using Thai and Chinese numerical systems - and even shared the solution on The Hunt's unofficial blog - many other intrepid online hunters have been stumped, provoking blog comments like:
"I have been looking at the tattooed man all night, my wife thinks I have a serious problem"
"Anyone want to help an eye tired person for the 1/2 naked man? I'm ready to reach thru and make him all naked!"
"My eyeballs are about to pop out...I have never stared at a half naked man this long."
So, Volvo is relenting, just this once, to give people a clue.
"We never promised this would be easy, there's booty at stake after all," said Linda Gangeri, national advertising manager at Volvo Cars of North America. "Tattoo Man is just one in a series of 22 puzzles that expose people to different languages and cultures, taking them on a journey which so far has included Cuba, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and Singapore. But, maybe he is a little too tough for so early in the game. So, here's a clue. The coordinates are spread out across the man's body, from head to toe - right shoulder, chest, under his navel, left and right thighs and under his left knee. Use the other, complete number strings to translate them into a longitude-latitude combination such as 1234-5678..."
Got that?
If you think you can take on the Tattoo Man and the other 21 puzzles, there's still time to join The Hunt and catch up! Participants 18 and older must visit a Volvo retailer to pick up a special pirate chart then register at volvocars.us/thehunt any time between now and May 29. Winners will only be eligible if they can produce the original pirate chart upon conclusion of The Hunt. On June 2, the first person from each of the 22 participating markets to finish the online hunt will compete against one another in one final exciting online challenge.
The first of those 22 individuals to solve the final puzzle will be named the winner and will receive a trip to the burial location to retrieve the chest filled with $50,000 in gold and a key to a new Volvo XC90.
Via: Volvo Press-release