Get paid to have your face printed onto a creepy, super realistic mask
"We will buy and sell your faces. A science fiction story has now become reality."
Wear the face of a stranger thanks to these hyper-realistic, 3D-printed masks from Japan.
Would you be OK with strangers wearing your face in public? Japanese company Kamenya Omoto is hoping you'll say yes. The specialty-mask store is paying Tokyo residents $380 (about £286, AU$514) to have their faces copied onto realistic 3D-printed masks.
The company will then sell the 3D-printed version of your face for $750 (about £563, AU$1,014). Kamenya Omoto calls the unusual mask project That Face.
Kamenya Omoto is currently accepting Tokyo-based applicants who are at least 20 years old. The face owner will receive a portion of the profits only if their face becomes popular.
Customers can already preorder the realistic mask of the store owner's face for 78,000 yen (about $750, £563, AU$1,014), but the company says it will start launching more face options soon.
"We will buy and sell your faces. A science fiction story has now become reality," Kamenya Omoto said in a statement. "No one yet knows what will happen to a world full of the same faces as you."
Of course, it could be problematic if a stranger wears your face to commit a crime. In 2019, the BBC reported a person who wore a realistic mask impersonating a French minister to steal millions of dollars.
A recent study even proved that people have a hard time telling the difference between a real person and someone wearing a realistic face mask.
In addition to the realistic face masks, Kamenya Omoto sells other handmade masks for theater groups. These depict figures from folk tales, as well as demons, ghosts and animals.
