Abstract: A linear air cylinder drives a guided slide block or carriage on which is pivotally mounted a vacuum arm biased by a spring to a down horizontal position. Cam followers carried by crank arms on the pivoted vacuum arm engage fixed stops when the rod of the air cylinder is retracted to swing the vacuum arm to an upright tag pickup position. Tags stored in a hopper are transported one at a time to a horizontal position away from the hopper where they are attached to socks.