It's official- the zombie costume has dethroned the ol' hobo as the all time most popular last-minute costume. But note the eerie similarities:

Hobo:
1. Find clothes and ruin them
2. Make your face and hair a mess
3. Act drunk and hungry
4. Stumble around with a sack

Zombie:
1. Find clothes and ruin them
2. Make your face and hair a mess
3. Act drunk and hungry
4. Stumble around without a sack

Step 1: Because I Don't Want to Disembowel Myself.

There are two reasons to go the extra mile with a zombie costume:

1. You want party-goers to think your costume is cool.
2. You want to trick zombies so they don't eat you.

You will need:
A glue stick
A narrow thing that could penetrate skin
Enough extra skin to make a fold (on a part of your body that you can show people)

You can achieve this effect with just about any narrow object. I used wires and skewers. You could try screwdrivers, shards of wood, scissors, knitting needles, spikes, sticks... surprise me.

It's as simple as applying glue to your skin, letting it dry until tacky, applying the object and pinching the skin shut.

Hold the skin pinched until the glue dries. This seems like it would be painful but it isn't... nearly as painful as actual impaling. The kiddos didn't mind at all.

Next step has all the good pics. Click next.

Step 2: That Little Kick

It's so easy. And dirt cheap. Smear on some blood or-- WHOA! I just thought of embedding pieces of chain link fence! That would be so cool.

Keep this in mind for BORG costumes too, or for authentic-looking battle damage.