Many tourists who visit Los Angeles want to have their picture taken with the world famous Hollywood Sign behind them. This sign was first constructed in 1923, and in the first iteration, it read Hollywoodland. The sign was originally an advertisement for real estate in the Hollywood Hills, but it has since become an iconic and protected treasure in Los Angeles.

If you visit Los Angeles and want to take your picture with the Hollywood Sign behind you, no problem; however, don’t think that it’s okay to get too close to the sign. The sign is currently blocked off from public access. You would have to jump a fence in order to actually reach the sign.

Back in 2021, one group of people didn’t care about the fact that they might get arrested for getting too close to the Hollywood Sign. In fact, they expected to get arrested, and they put a lot of work into their plot to change the Hollywood sign anyway.

It was all influencer Julia Rose’s idea. She was upset that Instagram was censoring her content, in her opinion, more strickly than they were censoring content from companies like Playboy. Rose runs the online publication Shag Mag, and she wanted to bring attention to both her publication and send a message to Instagram.

Rose’s friend and fellow influencer Jack Tenney helped her make her dream of altering the Hollywood sign a reality. Together and with the help of some friends, they made a plan to change the Hollywood sign so that it would read Hollyboob.

Changing the “D” on the sign to become a “B” was fairly easy, but changing the “W” to look like a “B” took a lot more work. In the end, the friends were successful with their prank, but as expected, they were also arrested.

Watch the video below to see how Rose and Tenney pulled off modifying the Hollywood Sign.

After the Hollyboob prank, the police increased their presence around the Hollywood sign. Rose, Tenney and four of their friends who helped modify the sign were arrested, but since they didn’t actually damage the sign and since they told police they were modifying the sign to raise awareness for breast cancer, they were only charged with misdemeanor trespassing instead of vandalism.

While Rose and her friends found the prank amusing, the Los Angeles Police Department did not. LAPD Commander Steve Lurie tweeted, “Los Angeles landmarks are precious to those of us @LAPDHollywood and this was way uncool.”

The Hollywood Sign is managed by the Hollywood Sign Trust, and the trust didn’t find the prank amusing either. Trust chair Mark Panatier told Insider, “It is unfortunate that there are those who think modifying the Sign is good sport but this renowned icon is to be appreciated not demeaned.”