Binding terms

Rules

These terms govern every visit, account, bid, logo, and tattoo related to THE ARM. By signing in, uploading a logo, or submitting a bid, you agree to all of them. If you do not agree, do not bid.

1. The auction

THE ARM is a single-lot public auction operated by Madison (“Operator”) through this website.
The lot is one permanent tattoo of the winning logo, approximately 3.5 × 3.5 inches (9 × 9 cm), placed on the posterior upper arm (tricep / back of the arm).
There is one slot. There is no second place, no consolation tattoo, and no leaderboard prize.
The auction opens at $25 USD. Each subsequent bid must be a whole US dollar at least $1 higher than the current promise.
The auction closes at September 25, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central Time. The highest valid promise recorded before that instant is the winning bid, subject to these terms.
Operator may pause, extend, restart, or cancel the auction for fraud, outage, legal risk, or any other reason Operator reasonably determines, including no reason at all.

2. Eligibility

You must be 18 or older and able to form a binding contract under the law that applies to you.
You must sign in with Hexclave using email and password. The email must be verified.
The website must match the domain of your verified email. someone@vercel.com may list vercel.com. vercel@gmail.com may not. Personal inboxes cannot bid.
You represent that you are authorized to bind the brand whose logo you submit, and that you have the right to use that logo as a tattoo.
You may not bid if you are a sanctioned person, if doing so would violate law, or if Operator has banned you.

3. The promise is the bid

A bid is an irrevocable offer and a legally binding promise to pay the stated USD amount if you are the winning bidder when the clock hits zero.
Hexclave does not capture the promised amount when you bid. Submitting a bid does not charge $25, $10,000, or any other bid figure.
To bid, you must save a payment method through Hexclave. That step is a card verification / setup, not a purchase. Operator is not taking a deposit and is not holding the bid on the card.
Your bank or card network may place a temporary authorization hold during verification. That hold is not a charge by THE ARM. It is released by the issuer on its own schedule. Operator does not control it and will not refund it because nothing was captured.
If you are outbid, nothing is refunded, because nothing was taken. Your logo comes off the slot. Your promise is released.
If you win, you owe the promised amount in full, in USD, when Operator invoices you or otherwise demands payment, and in any event before the tattoo appointment unless Operator agrees otherwise in writing.
Failure to pay the winning promise is a breach. Operator may cancel the tattoo, auction the slot again, pursue the debt, and refuse future bids, without limiting any other remedy.
Taxes, processor fees, and currency conversion are yours if they apply.

4. The tattoo

The tattoo is permanent. It will heal, fade, blow out, scar, or change with time, sun, weight, and the tattooer’s hand. Operator does not warrant a particular look, lifespan, or likeness to your file.
Size, placement, and linework will be adapted by a licensed tattooer for skin. The dashed 1:1 box on the sketch is the intended footprint, not a pixel-perfect stencil.
Operator chooses the artist, studio, date, and city. You do not get to pick the needle, the ink brand, or the appointment.
A tattoo involves pain, bleeding, infection risk, allergic reaction, and other medical risk. Operator is not your doctor. You assume those risks as they relate to your logo being on Operator’s skin; Operator assumes the bodily risk of receiving the tattoo.
Healing photos, studio photos, and the finished arm may be published. You grant Operator a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to display the winning logo on skin, on this site, and in any media about THE ARM.

5. Content Operator will refuse

Operator may reject any logo, brand, URL, or bid at any time, including after you are the high bidder, if Operator believes it is illegal, pornographic, hateful, harassing, defamatory, fraudulent, a scam, a phishing brand, a competitor Operator does not want, a political campaign Operator does not want, or otherwise something Operator does not want on skin.
That list is illustrative, not exhaustive. Operator’s decision is final and need not be explained.
If a winning logo is refused, Operator may reopen the slot, award it to the next valid promise, or cancel. You are not entitled to damages for a refused logo.
You will indemnify Operator against claims that your logo, brand, or listing infringes IP, publicity, or other rights, or that your bid was unauthorized.

6. Accounts, data, Hexclave

Authentication, payments, emails, and related services are provided by Hexclave. Their terms and privacy policy also apply to those services.
You will keep your password secret. Activity on your account is yours.
Operator may keep bid history, logos, emails, and card-on-file metadata as needed to run the auction and the tattoo, and as Hexclave stores it.
Do not scrape, attack, or reverse the site. Operator may ban IPs and accounts.

7. No warranties; limits

THE ARM is provided as is. Operator does not warrant uninterrupted uptime, that a bid will be recorded, or that a tattoo will occur by a particular date.
To the fullest extent allowed by law, Operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost bids, or reputational harm.
Operator’s total liability to you arising out of the auction or these terms will not exceed the amount you have actually paid to Operator for the winning promise (which is $0 until you pay it).
Some places do not allow these limits. In those places, the limits apply to the maximum extent permitted.

8. Law

These terms are the entire agreement about the auction, except for Hexclave’s own terms covering Hexclave’s products.
Operator may update these terms by posting a new version on this page. The version in effect when you submit a bid governs that bid.
If a court strikes a clause, the rest survives.
Failure to enforce a term is not a waiver.
You and Operator will first try to resolve disputes in writing. These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction where Operator resides, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where a mandatory consumer law in your place of residence says otherwise. Suits may be brought in the state or federal courts of that jurisdiction, except that Operator may seek injunctive relief anywhere.

Go take the arm